Violation of Fourier's Law and Anomalous Heat Diffusion in Silicon

Abstract: We study heat conduction and diffusion in silicon nanowires (SiNWs) systematically by using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics. It is found that the thermal conductivity of SiNWs diverges with the length, even when the length is up to 1,100 nm which is much longer than the phonon mean free path. Moreover, an anomalous heat diffusion is observed which is believed to be responsible for the length dependent thermal conductivity. Our results provide strong evidence that Fourier's law of heat conduction is not valid in low dimensional nanostructures.