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Enhancing interfacial thermal transport in GaN-diamond heterointerfaces through thermally induced mixing layers

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2025-09-17
JournalPhysica Scripta
AuthorsYongfeng Qu, Wenbo Hu, Fei Wang, Boquan Ren, Jijun Ding
InstitutionsXi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an Shiyou University

Abstract Understanding interfacial phonon transport is critical for optimizing thermal management in high-power GaN-based microelectronic devices. Here, we employ molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the impact of two different amorphous GaN/diamond (a-GaN/a-diamond) interfacial structures on thermal transport across the GaN-diamond interface. The results reveal that the presence of a-GaN/a-diamond significantly hinders interfacial thermal transport due to phonon mismatch. However, introducing an amorphous mixing layer (formed by annealing a-GaN/a-diamond) reduces the phonon mismatch and enhances phonon mode participation, thereby increasing interfacial thermal conductance (ITC) of the GaN-diamond interface. Specifically, the ITC of the GaN-diamond interface with the mixing layer is 67% higher than that with a-GaN/a-diamond (total thickness of 5 nm). These findings demonstrate that the formation of thermally induced mixing layer is a promising strategy for improving interfacial thermal transport in GaN-diamond heterointerfaces. This work provides important insights for engineering advanced interface designs to optimize the thermal management in GaN-based power devices.

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