Non-Linear Thermoelectric Devices with Surface-Disordered Nanowires
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The presented work entitled "Non-linear thermoelectric devices with surface-disordered nanowires" by Peter Markoš and Khandker Muttalib, is a well written review on the treated topic.
I have to suggest the following comments/advice before a further publication
1) As you already sentenced in lines 75-80 you can do the same in section 3.2. Here, the authors described the Excitation of Localized states, I suggest to discuss in an suitable way the possibility to excite a thermal response also by using plasmonic effects, please see the following paper "J. Appl. Phys. 128, 093107 (2020);". The authors of this paper largely investigated the plasmonic and thermal behavior that is caused by the first one, you can also see and cite other papers referenced in the indicated one.
2) Figure 4 needs a color scale bar. It is useful to understand the shown quantities and its magnitude.
3) Line 438 Figure is not referred to a Figure 7 I guess. Please check if other sentences link to a Figure that missed the number.
4) Figure 8 is not easy at all to read label and axis, I hope it is possible to enlarge it.
5) In the part of text that goes from line 215 to 224, when you are referring to quasi one-dimensional structures, it could useful to refer to particular metamaterials where the behavior of the wave-vector is in accordance on what you wrote. You can see and refer to the following one "DOI:10.1002/adma.202008644". Here the perpendicular wave-vector is smaller than the parallel one.
4) In section 4 about experiment related to the thermal generation and transport of silicon nanowires you can read and include this very recent paper "10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c03732"
Author Response
Response to Referee 1:
Referee 1: The presented work entitled "Non-linear thermoelectric devices with surface-
disordered nanowires" by Peter Markoš and Khandker Muttalib, is a well written review on the treated topic.
Our response: We thank the referee for a detailed and careful reading of the manuscript and constructive suggestions.
Referee 1: I have to suggest the following comments/advice before a further publication
1) As you already sentenced in lines 75-80 you can do the same in section 3.2. Here, the authors described the Excitation of Localized states, I suggest to discuss in an suitable way the possibility to excite a thermal response also by using plasmonic effects, please see the following paper "J. Appl. Phys. 128, 093107 (2020);". The authors of this paper largely investigated the plasmonic and thermal behavior that is caused by the first one, you can also see and cite other papers referenced in the indicated one.
Our response: We have added statements in section 3.2 as suggested by the referee and
added references [96], [99] and [100].
Referee 1: 2) Figure 4 needs a color scale bar. It is useful to understand the shown quantities and its magnitude.
Our response: We thank the referee for the suggestion. We have added a color scale bar in
Figure 4.
Referee 1: 3) Line 438 Figure is not referred to a Figure 7 I guess. Please check if other
sentences link to a Figure that missed the number.
Our response: We have fixed the missing label. Please note that since we omitted old Figure 5, the new label of the figure is Figure 6.
Referee 1: 4) Figure 8 is not easy at all to read label and axis, I hope it is possible to enlarge it.
Our response: We have enlarged the figures.
Referee 1: 5) In the part of text that goes from line 215 to 224, when you are referring to
quasi-one-dimensional structures, it could useful to refer to particular metamaterials where the behavior of the wave-vector is in accordance on what you wrote. You can see and refer to the following one "DOI:10.1002/adma.202008644". Here the perpendicular wave-vector is smaller than the parallel one.
Our response: We have added the reference, see [85].
Referee 1: 4) In section 4 about experiment related to the thermal generation and transport of
silicon nanowires you can read and include this very recent paper "10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c03732"
Our response: We have added the reference, see [115].
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript represents an interesting and valuable review of thermoelectric properties of silicon nanowires. The review begins with basics of thermoelectric devices which may help the reader, who is not an expert in the field, to follow the review article. Then, several topics including the impact of surface and bulk disorder on thermal conductivity, phonon localization, phonon scattering, the role of nanowire sizes on thermal- and electrical currents are discussed. 154 references are cited including the mostly cited references in the field. Not only theoretical but also experimental papers are reviewed.
The paper is clearly written. Some details can be improved: 1) the visibility in Figure 8 (too small font) 2) Please, check throughout the manuscript if the axes in all Figures have units.
The presented manuscript is a typical review article which does not include novel calculations but summarizes the already published results. If this kind of manuscripts is acceptable in Applied Nano, I would recommend it for publication after including the above mentioned minor corrections.
Author Response
Response to Referee 2:
Referee 2: Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The manuscript represents an interesting and valuable review of thermoelectric properties of silicon nanowires. The review begins with basics of thermoelectric devices which may help the reader, who is not an expert in the field, to follow the review article. Then, several topics including the impact of surface and bulk disorder on thermal conductivity, phonon localization, phonon scattering, the role of nanowire sizes on thermal- and electrical currents are discussed. 154 references are cited including the mostly cited references in the field. Not only theoretical but also experimental papers are reviewed. The paper is clearly written.
Our response: We thank the referee for his detailed comments.
Referee 2: Some details can be improved: 1) the visibility in Figure 8 (too small font)
Our response: We have enlarged the figures to improve the visibility.
Referee 2: 2) Please, check throughout the manuscript if the axes in all Figures have units.
Our response: Data shown in figures have been obtained from models described in the text in which Planck and Boltzmann constants are set to unity, as well as spring constant and mass of atoms and distance between neighboring atoms. The frequency, time, as well as thermal conductivity, temperature are measured in this system of units.
We add a short comments to the text and to figure captions when appropriate.
Referee 2: The presented manuscript is a typical review article which does not include novel
calculations but summarizes the already published results. If this kind of manuscripts is acceptable in Applied Nano, I would recommend it for publication after including the above mentioned minor corrections.
Our response: This indeed is a review paper, and we thank the referee for his
recommendation to publish in Applied Nano.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
1) Please specify if the figures are drawn by the authors and when they are taken over the source must be specified.
Author Response
Response to Referee 3:
Referee 3: 1) Please specify if the figures are drawn by the authors and when they are taken
over the source must be specified.
Our response: All figures are either adapted with small changes, or are reprinted without
change, from our own published works. We have cited them accordingly in each figure caption. Please note that we have omitted the old Figure 5, which was not our own work.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
I'm pleased to support the publication of this review. Now it is fine and complete. I would like to thank the authors for the efforts that they have been done.
