Effect of phonon confinement on the thermoelectric figure of merit of quantum wells

Alexander Balandin, Kang L. Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

218 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recently, it has been shown that the thermoelectric figure of merit is strongly enhanced in quantum wells and superlattices due to two-dimensional carrier confinement. We predict that the figure of merit can increase even further in quantum well structures with free-surface or rigid boundaries. This additional increase is due to spatial confinement of acoustic phonons and corresponding modification of their group velocities. The latter leads to an increase of the phonon relaxation rates and thus, a significant drop in the lattice thermal conductivity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6149-6153
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Applied Physics
Volume84
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1998 Dec 1

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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