Effects of vacancy defects and axial strain on thermal conductivity of silicon nanowires: A reverse nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation

Thermal conductivity of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) is evaluated using the reverse nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. The Stillinger–Weber (SW) and Tersoff interatomic potentials are employed to simulate thermal conductivity of SiNWs. In this work, the influence of random vacancy defects, axial strain, temperature and length on thermal conductivity and effective mean free path of SiNWs is investigated. It is found that by raising the percent of random vacancy defects, thermal conductivity of SiNWs decreases linearly for the results obtained form SW potential and nonlinearly for those obtained from Tersoff interatomic potential. Dependence of the thermal conductivity on axial strain is also studied. Results show that thermal conductivity increases as compressive strain increases and decreases as tensile strain increases. Influence of temperature is also predicted. It is found that the thermal conductivity of SiNWs decreases with increasing the mean temperature. Most of the simulations are performed for 4 UC×4 UC×40 UC silicon nanowires using ssp boundary condition.