Experimental study of the proposed super-thermal-conductor: BAs

• Main Authors: Lv, Bing (Author), Lan, Yucheng (Author), Wang, Xiqu (Author), Zhang, Qian (Author), Hu, Yongjie (Contributor), Jacobson, Allan J. (Author), Broido, David (Author), Chen, Gang (Contributor), Ren, Zhifeng (Author), Chu, Ching-Wu (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AIP Publishing, 2018-09-17T15:19:10Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Recent calculations predict a super-thermal-conductivity of ∼2000 Wm-1K-1, comparable to that of diamond, in cubic boron arsenide (BAs) crystals, which may offer inexpensive insulators with super-thermal-conductivity for microelectronic device applications. We have synthesized and characterized single crystals of BAs with a zinc blende cubic structure and lattice parameters of a = 4.7830(7) Å. A relatively high thermal conductivity of ∼200 Wm-1K-1is obtained, close to those of best non-carbon crystal insulators, such as SiC, although still an order of magnitude smaller than the value predicted. Based on our XPS, X-ray single crystal diffraction, and Raman scattering results, steps to achieve the predicted super-thermal conductivity in BAs are proposed.