In both particle and wave descriptions of phonons, the dense, aperiodically arranged interfaces in aperiodic superlattices are expected to strongly attenuate thermal transport due to phonon-interface scattering or broken long-range coherence. However, non-trivial thermal conductivity is still observed in these structures. In this study, we reveal that incoherent modes propagating in the aperiodic superlattice can be converted, through interference, into coherent modes defined by an approximate dispersion relation. This conversion leads to high transmission across the aperiodic superlattice structure, which contains hundreds of interfaces, ultimately resulting in non-trivial thermal conductivity. Such incoherent-to-coherent mode-conversion behavior is extensively observed in periodic superlattices. This work suggests an effective strategy to manipulate the phonon dispersion relation through layer patterning or material choice, enabling precise control of phonon transmission across aperiodic superlattices.

中文翻译：

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通过相干模式转换跨非周期超晶格的显着声子传输


在声子的粒子和波描述中，非周期性超晶格中密集的、非周期性排列的界面预计会由于声子界面散射或破坏的长程相干性而强烈减弱热传输。然而，在这些结构中仍然观察到了不平凡的导热性。在这项研究中，我们揭示了在非周期超晶格中传播的非相干模式可以通过干涉转换为由近似色散关系定义的相干模式。这种转换导致非周期性超晶格结构的高传输，该结构包含数百个界面，最终产生不平凡的导热率。这种非相干到相干模式转换行为在周期性超晶格中被广泛观察到。这项工作提出了一种通过层图案或材料选择来操纵声子色散关系的有效策略，从而能够精确控制非周期性超晶格中的声子传输。