The phD offer is part of a national ANR project gathering theoreticians and experimentalists all experts in nanoscale thermal transport. This project tackles innovative nanoscale phonon concepts for the optimization of the conception of nano-devices for thermal management applications. At the limits of heat management, the performance of energy conversion devices are limited by heat transfer across interfaces between metals and semiconductors. Very recent experimental studies have demonstrated the possibility to enhance interfacial heat transfer by doping the semiconductor [1]. A theoretical understanding of the different energy channels at metal/semiconductor interfaces is essential to imagine new and efficient thermal management devices. We plan to address thermal transport at metal/semiconductor interfaces using state-of-the-art atomistic calculations including molecular dynamics and ab-initio calculations.
The successful candidate will investigate the thermal transport properties of solid interfaces at the interface between metals and semi-conductors. Molecular dynamics (MD) and ab-initio DFT calculations will be employed to: 1) quantify the strength of the different energy channels-phonon and electron-phonon- at metal/semi-conductor interfaces [2,4] 2) interpret the experiments of our partners [1]. Simple analytical models will also be employed to interpret the simulation results.
The successful candidate should hold a Master degree in Physics, Physical Chemistry or Material Science. He/she should have knowledge and a taste for solid state physics (phonons), modeling and basic programming (fortran or C or python). Good communication skills and english writing are requested. The phD student will work at the Institute Lumière Matière (ILM) in Lyon, under the supervision of S. Merabia (CNRS), C. Adessi (UCBL prof.), T. Niehaus (UCBL prof.) and K. Termentzids (CNRS, CETHIL Lyon). He/she will also interact with our experimentalist colleagues all over France.
Interest candidates should send an email along with a resume to Samy Merabia (samy.merabia@univ-lyon1.fr). Informal enquiries are welcome.
References :
[1] G. Hamaoui et al., « Electronic contribution in heat transfer at metal-semiconductor and metal silicide-semiconductor interfaces », Sci. Rep. 8 (2018) 11352
[2] J. Lombard, F. Detcheverry and S. Merabia, « Influence of the electron-phonon interfacial conductance on the thermal transport at metal/dielectric interfaces », J. Phys. Cond. Mat. 27 (2015) 015007
[3] A. France-Lanord, S. Merabia, T. Albaret, D. Lacroix and K. Termentzidis, « Thermal properties of amorphous/crystalline silicon superlattice », J. Phys.: Cond. Matter 26 (2014) 355801
[4] A.Alkurdi, J. Lombard, F. Detcheverry and S. Merabia, « Enhanced heat transfer with metal-dieletric core-shell nanoparticles », Phys. Rev. Appl. 13 (2020) 03403