Flexural phonons and thermal transport in multilayer graphene and graphite
Abstract
We present a theory for the lattice thermal conductivity κL of multilayer graphene (MLG) and graphite, which is based on an exact numerical solution of the Boltzmann equation for phonons. Dominant contributions to κL from out-of-plane or flexural phonons are found, which is consistent with previous findings for single-layer graphene (SLG). However, the interaction between graphene layers in MLG and graphite breaks a selection rule on phonon-phonon scattering, causing their κLs to be much lower than that of SLG. C13 isotopes are shown to be an important scattering mechanism, accounting for an ∼15% additional drop in the κL of these systems. We demonstrate that the κL values converge to that of graphite after only about five layers, a consequence of weak interlayer coupling. These findings are qualitatively consistent with recent measurements of κL for MLG.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review B
- Pub Date:
- June 2011
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevB.83.235428
- Bibcode:
- 2011PhRvB..83w5428L
- Keywords:
-
- 63.22.Rc;
- 63.20.kg;
- 65.80.Ck;
- 66.70.-f;
- Phonon-phonon interactions;
- Nonelectronic thermal conduction and heat-pulse propagation in solids;
- thermal waves