Thermal conductivity of meso-porous germanium

Abstract

Thermal conductivity value of sponge-like meso-porous germanium (meso-PGe) layers measured by means of photoacoustic technique is reported. The room temperature thermal conductivity value is found to be equal to 0.6 W/(m K). The experimental results are in excellent agreement with molecular dynamic and Monte Carlo simulations. Both experiments and simulations show an important thermal conductivity reduction of the meso-PGe layers compared to the bulk Ge. The obtained results reveal meso-PGe as an interesting candidate for both thermoelectric and photovoltaic applications in which thermal transport is a really crucial issue.