Investigation of the Full Spectrum Phonon Lifetime in Thin Silicon Films from the Bulk Spectral Phonon Mean-Free-Path Distribution by Using Kinetic Theory

Phonon dynamics in nanostructure is critically important to thermoelectric and optoelectronic devices because it determines the transport and other crucial properties. However, accurately evaluating the phonon lifetimes is extremely difficult. This study reports on the development of a new semi-empirical method to estimate the full-spectrum phonon lifetimes in thin silicon films at room temperature based on the experimental data on the phonon mean-free-path spectrum in bulk silicon and a phenomenological consideration of phonon transport in thin films. The bulk of this work describes the theory and the validation; then, we discuss the trend of the phonon lifetimes in thin silicon films when their thicknesses decrease.