Interfacial thermal resistance in multilayer graphene structures

The cross-plane thermal conductivities of multilayer graphene are investigated using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. It is found that the interfacial thermal resistance in multilayer graphene structures is strongly layer number dependent. It decreases with increasing layer number and reaches a limit as layer number is large enough. The interfacial thermal resistance for graphite and multilayer graphene has an anomalous relationship with temperature compared with that in superlattice structures. It increases with the temperatures above room temperature, which is attributed to phonon tunneling effects. Phonon tunneling probability is reduced due to the decreased phonon wavelength while temperature rises, which in turn causes the increased interfacial thermal resistance.