Interfacial thermal resistance between metallic carbon nanotube and Cu substrate

A comprehensive model was developed to calculate the interfacial thermal resistance between a metallic carbon nanotube (CNT) and a Cu substrate. The new model accounts for both phonon-mediated and electron-mediated thermal transfer at the interface, as well as the effect of electron-phonon coupling within CNT and Cu. The phonon-mediated thermal transfer was simulated using the non-equilibrium molecular dynamics, while the electron-mediated thermal transfer was computed by the non-equilibrium Green's function method in conjunction with the density function theory. The effect of electron-phonon coupling within Cu and CNT was investigated by using the kinetic theory. Our results show that (1) electron-phonon coupling within Cu and CNT contributes significantly to the overall thermal transfer across the CNT/Cu interface, and (2) contributions to the overall thermal conductance at the CNT/Cu interface from the electron-mediated thermal transfer are comparable to that from the phonon-mediated thermal transfer. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3670011]