Ultrahigh thermal conductivity in isotope-enriched cubic boron nitride
Ke Chen, Bai Song, Navaneetha K. Ravichandran, Qiye Zheng, Xi Chen, Hwijong Lee, Haoran Sun, Sheng Li, Geethal Amila Gamage, Fei Tian, Zhiwei Ding, Qichen Song, Akash Rai, Hanlin Wu, Pawan Koirala, Aaron J. Schmidt, Kenji Watanabe, Bing Lv, Zhifeng Ren, Li Shi, David G. Cahill, Takashi Taniguchi, David Broido, Gang Chen
Abstract
A cool way to use isotopes Thermal management of electronics requires materials that can efficiently remove heat. Several promising materials have been found recently, but diamond remains the bulk material with the highest thermal conductivity. Chen et al. found that isotopically pure cubic boron nitride has an ultrahigh thermal conductivity, 75% that of diamond. Using only boron-11 or boron-10 allows the crystal vibrations that carry heat to move more efficiently through the material. This property could be exploited for better regulating the temperature of high-power devices. Science , this issue p. 555