Phonon Transport Across Coherent and Incoherent Interfaces

Phonon-mediated heat transport in two-dimensional superlattices with coherent and incoherent interfaces is simulated by using the concurrent atomistic-continuum method. The energy transmission across superlattices with incoherent interfaces is found to be an order of magnitude lower than that with coherent interfaces. The simulation results provide a direct visualization of the transient processes of phonon propagation and scatterings, which facilitates an improved mechanistic understanding of phonon transport across multiple interfaces. This work finds that heat conduction in superlattices with coherent interfaces is dominated by coherent phonons, while the existence of defects that comprise the incoherent interfaces destroys the wave interference and changes the phonon transport nature from coherent to diffusive. In addition, phonon scattering by interface defects becomes stronger with decreasing phonon wavelength, and the phonon coherence is destroyed for phonons with 5 nm wavelength.