Grain Boundary-Limited Thermal Transport in Suspended Thin Graphite across an Unexplored Thickness Regime.

Abstract

We present systematic thermal conductivity (κ) measurements of suspended thin graphite ribbons, 234-527 nm thick, using a four-probe 3ω method. Unlike recent reports of phonon hydrodynamics and exceptionally high κ in micrometer-thick graphite ( <i>Science</i>, 2020), we observe significantly lower κ and no signatures of collective phonon flow in this intermediate thickness regime. Instead, our measured κ lies between few-layer graphene and bulk graphite. These results agree with a first-principles-informed Peierls-Boltzmann transport model with spatially resolved Monte Carlo sampling. Additionally, the temperature for the peak κ shifts lower with increasing thickness, due to the interplay of phonon-boundary and phonon-isotope scattering. Incorporating grain boundary scattering into simulations is necessary to replicate the experimental trends. These findings delineate the boundary between ballistic, hydrodynamic, and diffusive transport regimes in graphite and underscore the dominant role of disorder and geometry in phonon transport in quasi-two-dimensional materials, offering insights for nanoscale thermal management.