Structure, mechanical properties, and thermal transport in microporous silicon nitride via parallel molecular dynamics

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate structure, mechanical properties, and thermal transport in amorphous silicon nitride under uniform dilation. As the density is lowered, we observe the formation of pores below ρ = 2.6 g/cc and at 2.0 g/cc the largest pore percolates through the entire system. Effects of porosity on elastic constants, phonons and thermal conductivity are investigated. Thermal conductivity and Young's modulus are found to scale as ρ1.5 and ρ3.6, respectively.