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Title: Barrier penetration effects on thermopower in semiconductor quantum wells

Journal Article · · AIP Advances
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4861597· OSTI ID:22250825
 [1];  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka, India – 580 003 (India)

Finite confinement effects, due to the penetration of the electron wavefunction into the barriers of a square well potential, on the low–temperature acoustic-phonon-limited thermopower (TP) of 2DEG are investigated. The 2DEG is considered to be scattered by acoustic phonons via screened deformation potential and piezoelectric couplings. Incorporating the barrier penetration effects, the dependences of diffusion TP and phonon drag TP on barrier height are studied. An expression for phonon drag TP is obtained. Numerical calculations of temperature dependences of mobility and TP for a 10 nm InN/In {sub x}Ga{sub 1−x}N quantum well for different values of x show that the magnitude and behavior of TP are altered. A decrease in the barrier height from 500 meV by a factor of 5, enhances the mobility by 34% and reduces the TP by 58% at 20 K. Results are compared with those of infinite barrier approximation.

OSTI ID:
22250825
Journal Information:
AIP Advances, Vol. 4, Issue 1; Other Information: (c) 2014 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2158-3226
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English