Heat-to-mechanical energy conversion in graphene: Manifestation of Umklapp enhancement with strain
Journal article, 2019

Conversion of heat-flux from a steady state temperature difference to mechanical vibration is demonstrated in graphene nanoribbons using direct non-equilibrium molecular dynamics. We observe that this effect is independent of the method of imposing the temperature gradient, heat flux, as well as imposed boundary conditions. We propose that simply dividing the nanoribbon in long and short sections using a partially immobilized area will lead to excitation of long-wavelength vibrations into the long section of the nanoribbon. This results in simpler architectures for heat-to-vibration converter devices based on graphene. Furthermore, we observe that applying tensile axial strain to nanoribbons facilitates vibrational instability by reducing the required threshold heat flux or the temperature gradient. Finally, we discuss the role played by Umklapp scattering for physical mechanisms behind these observations.

Energy conversion

Mechanical energies

Heat flux

Graphene nanoribbons

Author

Daryoush Shiri

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Quantum Technology

Andreas Isacsson

Chalmers, Physics, Condensed Matter Theory

Journal of Applied Physics

0021-8979 (ISSN) 1089-7550 (eISSN)

Vol. 125 12 125101

Areas of Advance

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Materials Science

Infrastructure

C3SE (Chalmers Centre for Computational Science and Engineering)

Subject Categories

Other Physics Topics

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

Condensed Matter Physics

DOI

10.1063/1.5081902

More information

Latest update

1/18/2023