Thermal conductivity of silicene nanosheets and the effect of isotopic doping

Abstract

This paper investigates the thermal conductivity of silicene nanosheets (SiNSs) via molecular dynamic simulation. It shows that the thermal conductivity of pristine SiNSs is about 25–30 W mK−1 and exhibits anisotropic behaviour. Moreover, it is found that isotopic doping is efficient in reducing the thermal conductivity of SiNSs. When SiNSs are randomly doped with 30Si at the doping percentage of 50%, a maximum reduction of about 20% is obtained. This reduction can be increased when the dopants are arranged into a superlattice pattern. The thermal conductivity of these superlattice-structured SiNSs changes non-monotonically as the thickness of their lattice layers decreases. Detailed analysis of the phonon spectra demonstrates that the competing mechanism between the interface scattering and confinement effects of the phonon modes is responsible for this non-monotonical behaviour.