Nanostructuration for thermoelectricity: The path to an unlimited reduction of phonon transport

Improvements of the thermoelectric properties in bulk materials have very often relied on the reduction of thermal conductivity, which is mostly based on phonon propagation. Reducing further phonon transport has remained a difficult task due to the fact that current thermoelectric materials are already efficient thermal insulators, and also because of the broadness of the Planckian phonon spectrum. Nanostructuring has provided new paths for decreasing thermal conduction, especially by means of scatterers, be them nano-objects, surfaces, or interfaces. In this chapter, the physics of demonstrated nanoscale methodologies for the reduction of thermal conduction will be proposed together with illustrations from direct simulations