Graphite C-axis thermal conductivity

This paper models the cc-axis thermal conductivity of thin graphite layers taking into account phonon confinement. A Debye model is used to calculate graphite cc-axis thermal conductivity, which is found to be 4 orders of magnitude smaller than in the graphite basal plane. This reduced thermal conductivity is promising for devices with improved thermoelectric figure of merit, ZTZT, and thermal conduction along graphite cc-axis. Results of graphite thermal conductivity in the basal plane are also presented and discussed. These calculations have been done for ideal graphite structures that are a few monolayers thick, free of defects, and free of boundary scattering processes. To achieve the low calculated values of thermal conductivity, it will be necessary to fabricate high-quality graphite structures; this will pose significant fabrication challenges.