Welcome to the almaBTE web site

almaBTE is a software package that solves the space- and time-dependent Boltzmann transport equation for phonons, using only ab-initio calculated quantities as inputs. The program can predictively tackle phonon transport in bulk crystals and alloys, thin films, superlattices, and multiscale structures with size features in the nm-μm range. Among many other quantities, the program can output thermal conductances and effective thermal conductivities, space-resolved average temperature profiles, and heat-current distributions resolved in frequency and space. Its first-principles character makes almaBTE especially well suited to investigate novel materials and structures.

almaBTE can be considered a succesor to ShengBTE, improving upon and extending its approach for homogeneous bulk materials.

The development of almaBTE was funded by the Horizon 2020 project ALMA between 2015 and 2018. Its goal was to enable the predictive design of heat management materials and structures. Heat management constitutes a grand challenge that blocks further development in disciplines as varied as nanoelectronics, power devices, phase change memories, high temperature turbines, or thermoelectric energy conversion, to cite a few. Further progress requires the help of accurate modeling tools that can predict the performance of new complex materials integrated in these increasingly demanding novel devices.

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