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Interface-facilitated energy transport in coupled Frenkel–Kontorova chains

Frontiers of Physics volume 11, Article number: 114401 (2016) Cite this article

Abstract

The role of interface couplings on the energy transport of two coupled Frenkel–Kontorova (FK) chains is explored through numerical simulations. In general, it is expected that the interface couplings result in the suppression of heat conduction through the coupled system due to the additional interface phonon–phonon scattering. In the present paper, it is found that the thermal conductivity increases with increasing intensity of interface interactions for weak inter-chain couplings, whereas the heat conduction is suppressed by the interface interaction in the case of strong inter-chain couplings. Based on the phonon spectral energy density method, we demonstrate that the enhancement of energy transport results from the excited phonon modes (in addition to the intrinsic phonon modes), while the strong interface phonon–phonon scattering results in the suppressed energy transport.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and the Beijing–Hong Kong–Singapore Joint Centre for Nonlinear and Complex Systems (Beijing), Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Rui-Xia Su

  2. Science and Technology on Plasma Physics Laboratory, Research Center of Laser Fusion, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, 621900, China

    Zong-Qiang Yuan

  3. Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation (Ministry of Education), College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Jun Wang

  4. College of Information Science and Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Zhi-Gang Zheng

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  1. Rui-Xia Su
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  2. Zong-Qiang Yuan
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  3. Jun Wang
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  4. Zhi-Gang Zheng
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Correspondence to Jun Wang or Zhi-Gang Zheng.

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Cite this article

Su, RX., Yuan, ZQ., Wang, J. et al. Interface-facilitated energy transport in coupled Frenkel–Kontorova chains. Front. Phys. 11, 114401 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-015-0548-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-015-0548-z

Keywords

  • interface couplings
  • energy transport
  • heat conduction
  • phonon-phonon scattering
  • Frenkel–Kontorova (FK) chains
  • excited phonon modes
  • phonon spectral energy density