Thermally-Active Screw Dislocations in Si Nanowires and Nanotubes

International audienceDislocations significantly influence the physical properties of nanomaterials. Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations uncover significant reductions in thermal conductivity when Si nanowires contain axial screw dislocations. The effect can act in combination with other known thermal conductivity limiting mechanisms, and thus can enable the further optimization of the figure of merit for a new family of complex thermoelectric nanomaterials