Thermal conduction and rectification in few-layer graphene Y junctions.

By using molecular dynamics simulations, we have studied heat flux in graphene Y junctions with lengths of 16.7 nm. It is found that the heat flux runs preferentially from the branches to the stem, which demonstrates an obvious thermal rectification effect in these asymmetric graphene ribbons. More interesting, compared to single-layer graphene Y junctions, a larger rectification ratio can be achieved in double-layer structures, due to the presence of layer-layer interactions. Combined with the availability of high quality few-layer graphene materials, our results shed light on heat conduction in graphene nanoribbons and may open up few-layer graphene applications in thermal management of nano electronics.