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Hydrodynamic signatures in thermal transport in devices based on 2D materials: an ab initio study

We investigate the features arising from hydrodynamic effects in graphene and phosphorene devices with finite heat sources, using ab initio calculations to go beyond Callaway's model and inform a full linearized scattering operator, and solving the phonon Boltzmann transport equation through energy-based deviational Monte Carlo methods. We explain the mechanisms that create those hydrodynamic features, showing that boundary scattering and the relation of sample dimensions to the nonlocal length are the determinant factors, regardless of the relative importance of normal versus resistive scattering. From this point of view, the nonlocal length reflects the ability of scattering to randomize the heat flux, and we show that approximations made on the scattering operator may have, through the value of nonlocal length, qualitative consequences on the signatures of hydrodynamic behavior.