Exploiting nanoscale heat transport in novel materials for electronic device applications

散热不良是制约器件性能的根本因素之一，对器件失效有很大影响。在激光、晶体管和传感器等高度集成的电子器件中，高电流密度会产生强烈的局域热，不仅会改变材料的性质，还会导致不可逆转的结构变化。在宏观尺度上缓解这些影响，使得更有能力的电子、光子和数据存储系统得以商业化。然而，在微观设备级别，接口、绝缘体或几何限制的存在对我们处理余热和发展对计算系统、通信系统和制造至关重要的技术的能力构成了严重限制。在我们日益数字化的生活方式中，我们对不断增长的数字信息的依赖将极大地受益于数据处理、存储和通信方式的根本性变化，这种变化超出了当今的规模经济。换句话说，电子设备的革命性改进将以更少的增量资源实现更快的技术进步。因此，对纳米尺度热传输的研究可以影响到无数的应用。科学界仍在发展对纳米尺度上驱动热传输的过程的理解，其中非经典能量传递、电子与晶体振动之间的相互作用和有限尺寸效应等微观过程变得重要。虽然该领域的重要挑战仍然存在，例如如何缓解电子设备的散热瓶颈，但一个耐人寻味的问题浮出水面：我们如何利用纳米尺度下不同的热传导方式来发挥我们的优势？二维晶体、有机/无机纳米复合材料和原子层状金属化合物等新型材料的出现，为基于其电子和磁性的不同器件提供了机会，并且由于其高度定向的热传输而非常有趣，可以在方便的地方用于热传导。非经典现象可以限制热的耗散，但最近的研究表明，在某些情况下，增强是可能的。因此，对具有高度方向性和非经典能量传输的晶体的研究可以为光电子器件、传感、能量采集和数据存储技术提供前所未有的调谐旋钮。拟议的研究将解决光子设备、下一代数据存储技术、设备和由二维晶体组成的材料的热传输挑战和机遇。这项工作将利用与学术界和数据存储行业现有的国际合作。从长远来看，这项工作的影响将改变我们迅速增长的电子、计算机和电信基础设施。

Poor heat dissipation is one of the fundamental limiters of device performance and strongly influences device failure. In highly integrated electronic devices such as lasers, transistors and sensors, high current densities generate intense localized heat that can not only alter material properties, but also lead to irreversible structural changes. Mitigating these effects at the macroscopic scale has allowed the commercialization of ever more capable electronic, photonic and data storage systems. However, at the microscopic device level the presence of interfaces, insulators or geometric confinement pose severe limitations to our ability to dispose waste heat and evolve technologies that are central to computing systems, communication systems, and manufacturing. In our increasingly more digital lifestyles, our reliance on ever growing amounts of digital information will greatly benefit from radical shifts in the way data is processed, stored and communicated that goes beyond today's economies of scale. In other words, revolutionary improvements in electronic devices will allow faster technological progress with fewer incremental resources. The study of nanoscale heat transport can therefore affect a myriad of applications. The scientific community is still developing an understanding of the processes driving heat transport at the nanoscale, where microscopic processes such as non-classical energy transfer, interaction between electrons and crystal vibrations and finite size effects become important. While important challenges in the field remain, such as how to alleviate the heat dissipation bottleneck in electronic devices, an intriguing question surfaces: how can we exploit the different way heat conducts at the nanoscale to our advantage? The emergence of new classes of materials such as 2-dimensional crystals, organic/inorganic nanoscale composites and atomically layered metal compounds are presenting opportunities for different devices based on their electronic and magnetic properties and are also very interesting due to their highly directional heat transport, which can be used to channel heat where convenient. Non-classical phenomena can limit the dissipation of heat, but recently it was shown that in some cases an enhancement is possible. The study of crystals with highly directional and non-classical energy transport can therefore provide an unprecedented tuning knob for opto-electronic devices, sensing, energy harvesting and data storage technologies. The proposed research will address heat transport challenges and opportunities for photonic devices, next generation data storage technologies, devices and materials composted of 2-dimensional crystals. This work will leverage existing international collaborations with academia and the data storage industry. The impact of this work will in the long run transform our rapidly growing electronic, computing and telecommunications infrastructure.