Glass-Like Thermal Conductivity in Nanostructures of a Complex Anisotropic Crystal

Size effects on vibrational modes in complex crystals remain largely unexplored, despite their importance in a variety of electronic and energy conversion technologies. Enabled by advances in a four-probe thermal transport measurement method, we report the observation of glass-like thermal conductivity in ~20 nm thick single crystalline ribbons of higher manganese silicide, a complex, anisotropic crystal with a ~10 nm scale lattice constant along the incommensurate c axis. The boundary scattering effect is strong for many vibrational modes because of a strong anisotropy in their group velocities or diffusive nature, while confinement effects are pronounced for acoustic modes with long wavelengths along the c axis. Furthermore, the transport of the non-propagating, diffusive modes is suppressed in the nanostructures by the increased incommensurability between the two substructures as a result of the unusual composition of the nanostructure samples. These unique effects point to diverse, new approaches to suppressing the lattice thermal conductivity in complex materials.