  Studies of possible localization of phonons in nanomaterials have gained
importance in recent years in the context of thermoelectricity where
phonon-localization can reduce thermal conductivity, thereby improving the
efficiency of thermoelectric devices. However, despite significant efforts,
phonon-localization has not yet been observed experimentally in real materials.
Here we propose that surface-roughness dominated nanowires are ideal candidates
to observe localization of phonons, and show numerically that the space and
time evolution of the energy generated by a heat-pulse injected at a given
point shows clear signatures of phonon localization. We suggest that the same
configuration might allow experimental observation of localization of phonons.
Our results confirm the universality in the surface-roughness dominated regime
proposed earlier, which allows us to characterize the strength of disorder by a
single parameter combining the width of the wire as well as the mean height of
the corrugation and its correlation length.
