Eur. Phys. J. B 80, 363-369 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2011-10892-8

Phonons heat transport at an atomic well boundary in ultrathin solid films

¹ Laboratoire de Physique de l'État Condensé, UMR 6087, Université du Maine, 72085 Le Mans, France
² Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie Quantique, Université de Tizi Ouzou, Tizi Ouzou, 15000, Algerie
³ Department of Physics, Texas A and M University at Qatar, Education City, PO Box 23874, Doha, Qatar

Corresponding author: ^a michel.aboughantous@qatar.tamu.edu

Received: 18 November 2010
Revised: 21 January 2011
Published online: 18 March 2011

Abstract

A model calculation is presented for the heat transport across an extended atomic well boundary separating two ultrathin solid films, due to the phonons coherent elastic scattering at the boundary. Using the matching method, the transmission spectra are calculated for the phonons coherent scattering, for all propagating frequencies, and incident angles from inside the films, and for different boundary elastic conditions. The group velocities of the phonon branches in the ultrathin material films are explicitly calculated as a function of frequency and incidence angle. The model is applied to a corresponding gold material system, where the individual thermal conductivities for the phonon branches of this system are numerically evaluated for different boundary conditions. The results show that the heat transport at the boundary may be reduced or enhanced by controlling its elastic properties.