Thermal wave propagation in graphene studied by molecular dynamics simulations

The transient heat conduction in both armchair and zigzag-edged graphene ribbons pulsed by local heating with a duration of 1 ps was studied using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that the heat pulse excites two waves which indicates non-Fourier heat conduction. One of the two waves is a sound wave (first sound), which has macroscopic momentum and propagates at the speed of sound. The other is a thermal wave (second sound), whose propagation speed is ( 1/sqrt 3 ) of the sound velocity. The sound wave excited by the heat pulse is a longitudinal wave, whose energy is only transported in the longitudinal direction. The thermal wave excited by the heat pulse is generated by transverse lattice vibrations, with the energy only having the transverse component. The observed anisotropy of the transient heat conduction suggests that the system is in a non-equilibrium state during propagation of the heat pulse. Further statistical analyses show that the displacement of the heat pulse energy is related to the time as ( langle sigma^{2}rangle propto t^{1.80} ) , which implies that heat transport is ballistic-diffusive transport in graphene. The higher proportion of the ballistic transport will lead to stronger heat waves. At the crest of the thermal wave, energy is transported ballistically, while in the diffusive region and during attenuation of the thermal wave, the energy is transported diffusively.