Phononic thermal conduction and thermal regulation in low-dimensional micro-nano scale systems: Nonequilibrium statistical physics problems from chip heat dissipation

“Heat death”, namely, overheating, which will deteriorate the function of chips and eventually burn the device and has become an obstacle in the roadmap of the semiconductor industry. Therefore, heat dissipation becomes a key issue in further developing semiconductor. Heat conduction in chips encompasses the intricate dynamics of phonon conduction within one-dimensional, two-dimensional materials, as well as the intricate phonon transport through interfaces. In this paper, the research progress of the complexities of phonon transport on a nano and nanoscale in recent three years, especially the size dependent phonon thermal transport and the relationship between anomalous heat conduction and anomalous diffusion are summarized. Further discussed in this paper is the fundamental question within non-equilibrium statistical physics, particularly the necessary and sufficient condition for a given Hamiltonian whose macroscopic transport behavior obeys Fourier’s law. On the other hand, the methods of engineering the thermal conduction, encompassing nanophononic crystals, nanometamaterials, interfacial phenomena, and phonon condensation are also introduced. In order to comprehensively understand the phononic thermal conduction, a succinct overview of phonon heat transport phenomena, spanning from thermal quantization and the phonon Hall effect to the chiral phonons and their intricate interactions with other carriers is presented. Finally, the challenges and opportunities, and the potential application of phonons in quantum information are also discussed.