Vacancy structural defect effects on the lattice thermal conductivity of silicon thin films were investigated with non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. The lattice thermal conductivities decrease with increasing vacancy concentration at 300 to 700K. Vacancy defects decreased the sample thermal conductivity, and the temperature dependence of thermal conductivity became less significant as the temperature increases. The molecular dynamics result was in good agreement with the theoretical analysis values obtained based on the Boltzmann equation. In addition, theoretical analysis indicated that the reduction in the lattice thermal conductivity with vacancy defects could be explained by the enhanced point-defect scattering due to lattice strain

Effects of Vacancy Structural Defects on the Thermal Conductivity of Silicon Thin Films. X.Zhang, Z.Sun: Journal of Semiconductors, 2011, 32[5], 053002