Kinetic approach for the calculation of the thermo-power coefficient in semiconductor heterostructures

We solve the Boltzmann transport equation in the two relaxation times approximation to analyze the kinetics of spatially inhomogeneous electron gas. The explicit form of the distribution function, obtained by means of the maximum entropy principle, together with moments method approach, are used to calculate the thermo-power coefficient of a semiconductor sample in the presence of a gradient of temperature. Since the transport coefficients can be written in a general form in terms of Fermi–Dirac integrals, we show that, in the semi-ballistic approach for mesoscopic semiconductor systems, the thermo-transport coefficients can be directly calculated by this procedure.