Wave-scattering formalism for thermal conductance in thin wires with surface disorder

Abstract

Elastic wave characteristics of the heat conduction in low-temperature thin wires can be studied via a wave scattering formalism. A reaction matrix formulation of heat conductance modeled by elastic wave scattering is advocated. This formulation allows us to treat thin wires with arbitrary surface disorder. It is found that the correlation in the surface disorder may significantly affect the temperature dependence of the heat conductance. © 2009 The American Physical Society.