Thermal conductivity suppression in GaAs–AlAs core–shell nanowire arrays

Semiconductor nanowire heterostructures have been shown to provide appealing properties for optoelectronics and solid-state energy harvesting by thermoelectrics. Among these nanoarchitectures, coaxial core-shell nanowires have been of primary interest due to their electrical functionality, as well as intriguing phonon localization effects in the surface-dominated regime predicted via atomic simulations. However, experimental studies on the thermophysical properties of III-V semiconductor core-shell nanowires remain scarce regardless of the ubiquitous nature of these compounds in solid-state applications. Here, we present thermal conductivity measurements of the arrays of GaAs nanowires coated with AlAs shells. We unveil a strong suppression in thermal transport facilitated by the AlAs shells, up to ∼60%, producing a non-monotonous dependence of thermal conductivity on the shell thickness. Such translation of the novel heat transport phenomena to macroscopic nanowire arrays paves the way for rational thermal design in nanoscale applications.