Disentangling Electronic and Phononic Thermal Transport Across 2D Interfaces

Abstract: Electrical and thermal transport across material interfaces is key for 2D electronics in semiconductor technology, yet their relationship remains largely unknown. We report a theoretical proposal to separate electronic and phononic contributions to thermal conductance at 2D interfaces, which is validated by non-equilibrium Green's function calculations and molecular dynamics simulations for graphene-gold contacts. Our results reveal that while metal-graphene interfaces are transparent for both electrons and phonons, non-covalent graphene interfaces block electronic tunneling beyond two layers but not phonon transport. This suggests that the Wiedemann-Franz law can be experimentally tested by measuring transport across interfaces with varying graphene layers.