Thermal conductance quantum

In physics, the thermal conductance quantum $g_0$ describes the rate at which heat is transported through a single ballistic phonon channel. It is given by:

$g_{0} = \frac{\pi^2 {k_B}^2 T}{3h} \approx (9.456\times10^{-13} W/K^{2})T$.

The thermal conductance of any electrically insulating structure that exhibits ballistic phonon transport is a positive integer multiple of $g_0$. The thermal conductance quantum was first measured in 2000. These measurements employed suspended silicon nitride nanostructures that exhibited a constant thermal conductance of 16$g_0$ at temperatures below approximately 0.6 kelvin.

For ballistic electrical conductors, the electron contribution to the thermal conductance is also quantized as a result of the electrical conductance quantum and the Wiedemann–Franz law.

See also

• Thermal properties of nanostructures