Eur. Phys. J. B (2015) 88: 149
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2015-50771-8

Regular Article

Thermal boundary conductance across metal-nonmetal interfaces: effects of electron-phonon coupling both in metal and at interface

¹ Center for Phononics and Thermal Energy Science, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, P.R. China
² School of Environmental and Material Engineering, Shanghai Second Polytechnic University, Shanghai 201209, P.R. China
³ Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
⁴ Department of Physics, Center for Computational Science and Engineering, Center for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Center, National University of Singapore, 117546 Singapore, Republic of Singapore
⁵ NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117456 Singapore, Republic of Singapore

^a e-mail: zhoujunzhou@tongji.edu.cn
^b e-mail: xonics@tongji.edu.cn

Received: 4 November 2014
Received in final form: 30 March 2015
Published online: 8 June 2015

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the thermal boundary conductance across metal-nonmetal interfaces in the presence of the electron-phonon coupling not only in metal but also at interface. The thermal energy can be transferred from metal to nonmetal via three channels: (1) the phonon-phonon coupling at interface; (2) the electron-phonon coupling at interface; and (3) the electron-phonon coupling within metal and then subsequently the phonon-phonon coupling at interface. We find that these three channels can be described by an equivalent series-parallel thermal resistor network, based on which we derive out the analytic expression of the thermal boundary conductance. We then exemplify different contributions from each channel to the thermal boundary conductance in three typical interfaces: Pb-diamond, Ti-diamond, and TiN-MgO. Our results reveal that the competition among above channels determines the thermal boundary conductance.