Mode Resolved Thermal Transport in Amorphous Silicon: a Molecular Dynamics Study

Amorphous materials have found application in all manner of consumer products and continue to show promise for next generation technologies. Yet thermal transport in this class of materials remains a point of dispute. We studied the mechanisms of thermal transport in amorphous silicon using molecular dynamics simulation and wavelet transform techniques. Perturbation of a single atom in the equilibrated structure introduced broadband vibrational energy, which propagated outward. Analyzing the system dynamics with the wavelet transform provided information on the spectral wave velocity and diffusivity. We compare initial results to the assumptions underlying two current theories of thermal transport in amorphous materials.