Journal Article

Extremely anisotropic van der Waals thermal conductors

Poddar, Preeti, Park, Chibeom, Cahill, David G., Suh, Joonki, Mujid, Fauzia, Fransson, Erik, Erhart, Paul, Ray, Ariana, Kim, Shi En, Eriksson, Fredrik, Muller, David A., Zhong, Yu, Park, Jiwoong, Rai, Akash

2021

Overview

The densification of integrated circuits requires thermal management strategies and high thermal conductivity materials 1 – 3 . Recent innovations include the development of materials with thermal conduction anisotropy, which can remove hotspots along the fast-axis direction and provide thermal insulation along the slow axis 4 , 5 . However, most artificially engineered thermal conductors have anisotropy ratios much smaller than those seen in naturally anisotropic materials. Here we report extremely anisotropic thermal conductors based on large-area van der Waals thin films with random interlayer rotations, which produce a room-temperature thermal anisotropy ratio close to 900 in MoS 2 , one of the highest ever reported. This is enabled by the interlayer rotations that impede the through-plane thermal transport, while the long-range intralayer crystallinity maintains high in-plane thermal conductivity. We measure ultralow thermal conductivities in the through-plane direction for MoS 2 (57 ± 3 mW m −1  K −1 ) and WS 2 (41 ± 3 mW m −1  K −1 ) films, and we quantitatively explain these values using molecular dynamics simulations that reveal one-dimensional glass-like thermal transport. Conversely, the in-plane thermal conductivity in these MoS 2 films is close to the single-crystal value. Covering nanofabricated gold electrodes with our anisotropic films prevents overheating of the electrodes and blocks heat from reaching the device surface. Our work establishes interlayer rotation in crystalline layered materials as a new degree of freedom for engineering-directed heat transport in solid-state systems. Extremely anisotropic thermal conductors based on large-area van der Waals thin films with random interlayer rotations are reported here.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 119/118 / 140/133 / 142/126 / 639/301/357/1018 / 639/925/357/1018 / Anisotropy / Conductivity / Conductors / Crystal structure / Crystallinity / Densification / Electrodes / Expected values / Heat conductivity / Heat transfer / Heat transport / Humanities and Social Sciences / Integrated circuits / Interfaces / Interlayers / Layered materials / Molecular dynamics / Molybdenum disulfide / multidisciplinary / Overheating / Room temperature / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Simulation / Single crystals / Thermal conductivity / Thermal conductors / Thermal insulation / Thermal management / Thin films