Macroscopic polarization and thermal conductivity of GaN Original Research Article

We theoretically investigated the effect of macroscopic polarization (sum of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization) on the thermal conductivity of wurtzite GaN. Macroscopic polarization contributes to the effective elastic constant of the GaN and thus modifies the phonon group velocity. We used the revised phonon velocity to estimate the Debye frequency and temperature. Different phonon scattering rates were calculated as functions of the phonon frequency. The thermal conductivity of GaN was estimated using revised parameters such as the phonon velocity and phonon relaxation rate. The revised thermal conductivity at room temperature increased from 250 to 279 W m−1 K−1 due to macroscopic polarization. The method we developed can be used for thermal budget calculations for GaN optoelectronic devices.