Phonon Trapping in Pearl-Necklace-Shaped Silicon Nanowires

A pearl-necklace-shaped silicon nanowire, in contrast to a smooth nanowire, presents a much lower thermal conductivity due to the phonon trapping effect. By precisely controlling the pearl size and density, this reduction can be more than 70% for the structures designed in the study, which provides a unique approach for designing high-performance nanoscale thermoelectric devices.