Numerical investigation of thermal conductivity of Cu/graphene/Cu interface

The purpose of this work is to investigate the contribution of in-plane and out-of-plane phonon modes to interface thermal conductivities (ITC) of the Cu/graphene/Cu interface through nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. The proportions of the ITC of the in-plane and out-of-plane phonon modes in the pristine ITC are 1.1% and 99.3%, respectively. Defect engineering can change the coupling strength between in-plane and out-of-plane phonon modes. There is a strong coupling between the in-plane and the out-of-plane phonon mode when the defect concentration is lower than 3%. Phonon coupling has been transformed into weak interaction when the defect concentration is higher than 3%. The high defect concentration can suppress the coupling between in-plane and out-of-plane phonon modes. The results of the phonon density of states show that the out-of-plane phonons are mainly concentrated at low frequencies, and the in-plane phonons are mainly concentrated at high frequencies. This work helps to understand the mechanism of heat transfer of the graphene-based interface and provides theoretical guidance for the application of graphene-based interface nanodevices.