Crossover from Ballistic to Diffusive Thermal Transport in Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

We present a theoretical scheme that seamlessly handles the crossover from fully ballistic to diffusive thermal transport regimes and apply it to carbon nanotubes. At room temperature, micrometer-length nanotubes belong to the intermediate regime in which ballistic and diffusive phonons coexist. According to our scheme, the thermal conductance of these nanotubes exhibit anomalous nonlinear dependence of tube length due to this coexistence. This result is in excellent agreement with molecular-dynamics simulation results showing the nonlinear thermal conductance. Additionally, we clarify the mechanism of crossover in terms of the length-dependent characteristic frequency.