Three-phonon phase space and lattice thermal conductivity in semiconductors

• Published in: Journal of physics. Condensed matter Vol. 20; no. 16; pp. 165209 - 165209 (6)
• Main Authors: Lindsay, L, Broido, D A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 23.04.2008; Institute of Physics
• Subjects: Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Exact sciences and technology; Nonelectronic thermal conduction and heat-pulse propagation in solids; thermal waves; Physics; Transport properties of condensed matter (nonelectronic); Optical phonons; Acoustical phonons; Adiabatic approximation; Phonon-phonon interactions; II-VI semiconductors; Phonon dispersion; Multi-phonon processes; Phase space; Lattice thermal conductivity; III-V semiconductors
• ISSN: 0953-8984; 1361-648X
• DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/20/16/165209

We present calculations of the phase space for three-phonon scattering events in several group IV, III-V and II-VI semiconductors employing an adiabatic bond charge model to accurately represent the phonon dispersions. We demonstrate that this phase space varies inversely with the measured lattice thermal conductivities of these materials over a wide range of temperatures where three-phonon scattering is the dominant mechanism for scattering phonons. We find that this qualitative relationship is robust in spite of variations in material parameters between the semiconductors. Anomalous behavior occurs in three III-V materials that have large mass differences between constituent elements, which we explain in terms of the severely restricted three-phonon phase space arising from the large gap between acoustic and optic phonon branches.