A unified wave-particle treatment for phonon transport in superlattices

Author

Yang, Bao ; Chen, Gang

Author_Institution

Mech. & Aerosp. Eng. Dept., Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

25-29 Aug. 2002

Firstpage

306

Lastpage

309

Abstract

The phonon thermal conductivity of semiconductor superlattices is calculated with the use of a unified wave-particle model. This model points out that phonons in most semiconductor superlattices of interest are neither pure superlattice modes nor pure bulk modes, but in the mixing-mode regime. The phonons are rationally divided into bulk-like and superlattice-like modes according to the mean free path and the minimum number of periods required to form superlattice bands. The theoretic results are used to explain the thermal conductivity data in both the cross-plane and inplane directions of GaAs/AlAs superlattices.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; phonons; semiconductor superlattices; thermal conductivity; GaAs-AlAs; GaAs/AlAs superlattices; mean free path; mixing-mode regime; phonon thermal conductivity; phonon transport; semiconductor superlattices; unified wave-particle treatment; Aerospace engineering; Dispersion; Laser sintering; Lattices; Mechanical engineering; Particle scattering; Phonons; Photothermal effects; Semiconductor superlattices; Thermal conductivity;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Thermoelectrics, 2002. Proceedings ICT '02. Twenty-First International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7683-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICT.2002.1190326

Filename

1190326