Thermal conductivity of ZnTe nanowires

The thermal conductivity of individual ZnTe nanowires (NWs) was measured using a suspended micro-bridge device with built-in resistance thermometers. A collection of NWs with different diameters were measured, and strong size-dependent thermal conductivity was observed in these NWs. Compared to bulk ZnTe, NWs with diameters of 280 and 107 nm showed approximately three and ten times reduction in thermal conductivity, respectively. Such a reduction can be attributed to phonon-surface scattering. The contact thermal resistance and the intrinsic thermal conductivities of the nanowires were obtained through a combination of experiments and molecular dynamic simulations. The obtained thermal conductivities agree well with theoretical predictions.