Manipulation of heat current by the interface between graphene and white graphene

Department of Physics and Centre for Computational Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore - Singapore 117542, Republic of Singapore

^a phyjj@nus.edu.sg

Received: 29 March 2011
Accepted: 17 August 2011

Abstract

We investigate the heat current flowing across the interface between graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (the so-called white graphene) using both molecular dynamics simulation and nonequilibrium Green's function approaches. These two distinct methods discover the same phenomena that the heat current is reduced linearly with increasing number of carbon atom at the interface, and the zigzag interface causes stronger reduction of heat current than the armchair interface. These phenomena are interpreted by both the lattice dynamics analysis and the transmission function explanation, which both reveal that the localized phonon modes at interfaces are responsible for the heat management. The room temperature interface thermal resistance is about 7×10^{− 10} m² K/W in zigzag interface and 3.5×10^{− 10} m² K/W in armchair interface, which directly results in stronger heat reduction in the zigzag interface. Our theoretical results provide a specific route for experimentalists to control the heat transport in the graphene and hexagonal boron nitride compound through shaping the interface between these two materials.