Interfacial thermal conduction is traditionally described by the transmission of travelling phonons
in their bulk counterparts. However, recent experiments suggest that localized phonons at an interface
may exert a substantial influence on interfacial thermal conductance. By considering quantum
phonon scattering processes at a weakly interacting interface, we analyze the role of localized
phonons at the interface involved in the interfacial thermal conduction and discover that there is a
coupling between travelling phonons and the even orders of the localized phonons at the interface.
Using the fourth-order localized phonons as an example, we show that the travelling phonons can
collide with the localized phonons at the interface. Such collisions can significantly change the transmission
probability of the travelling phonons and thus affect the interfacial thermal conductance,
and importantly, such effects become increasingly significant with increasing temperature.
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Funding Info:
This research / project is supported by the A*STAR - SERC Central Research Fund Award
Grant Reference no. : N.A
This research / project is supported by the National Research Foundation - Competitive Research Program
Grant Reference no. : NRF-CRP24-2020-0002