Abstract
Using the Landauer formulation of transport theory, we predict that dielectric quantum wires should exhibit quantized thermal conductance at low temperatures in a ballistic phonon regime. The quantum of thermal conductance is universal, independent of the characteristics of the material, and equal to where is the Boltzmann constant, is Planck's constant, and is the temperature. Quantized thermal conductance should be experimentally observable in suspended nanostructures adiabatically coupled to reservoirs, devices that can be realized at the present time.
- Received 10 December 1997
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.232
©1998 American Physical Society