Temperature dependence of thermal conductivity of amorphous and crystal thin film by molecular dynamics simulation

For crystal materials, thermal conductivity (TC) is proportional to T-3 at low temperatures and to T-1 at high temperatures. TCs of most amorphous materials decrease with the decreasing temperatures. If a material is thin film, boundary will influence the TC and then influence the temperature dependence. In this paper, we calculate the TC of crystal and amorphous SiO2 thin films, which is a commonly used material in micro devices and Integrated Circuits, by NEMD simulations. The calculation temperatures are from 100K to 700K and the thicknesses are from 2nm to 8nm. TCs of crystal thin films reach their peak values at different temperatures for different thicknesses. The smaller thickness the larger peak values obtained. But for amorphous thin films, the results show that the temperature dependence of thin films is the same as bulk materials and not relative to their thicknesses. The obtained temperature dependence of the thin films is consistent with some previous measurements and the theory predictions.