Advances in thermal phonon engineering and thermal management

Recent years have seen major developments in thermal management approaches for semiconductors and thermoelectric materials, which serve as critical technologies for achieving carbon neutrality. Modern electronic and optoelectronic devices require effective heat dissipation and thermal energy conversion to achieve better performance and maintain reliability and efficiency. In particular, as device dimensions continue to shrink to the nanoscale, conventional bulk thermal transport theories become inadequate, necessitating a deeper understanding of phonon transport mechanisms at interfaces, in nanostructures, and across heterogeneous systems. The field of phonon engineering has emerged through the convergence of several scientific disciplines: Theoretical modeling of phonon heat transport together with nanoscale thermal measurement methods, advanced materials development, and materials informatics approaches have driven the development of phonon engineering. The combination of multiple scientific disciplines has sped up advancements in our knowledge and ability to control thermal transport at micro- and nanoscale levels.