Thermal conductivity of GaAs/Ge nanostructures

Jia, Roger; Zeng, Lingping; Chen, Gang; Fitzgerald, Eugene A.

doi:10.1063/1.4984957

Title: Thermal conductivity of GaAs/Ge nanostructures

Journal Article · 01 June 2017 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4984957 · OSTI ID:1466226

Jia, Roger ^[1];

^[2]; Chen, Gang ^[2];

^[1]

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

Superlattices are of great interest as platform materials for thermoelectric technology that are capable of directly converting low-grade heat energy into useful electrical power. In this paper, the thermal conductivities of GaAs/Ge superlattice nanostructures were investigated systematically in relation to their morphologies and interfaces. Thermal conductivities were measured using ultrafast time-domain thermoreflectance and were found to decrease with increasing interface densities, consistent with past understanding of microscopic phonon transport in the particle regime. The lowest thermal conductivities were observed in (GaAs)_0.77(Ge₂)_0.23 alloys, and transmission electron microscopy study reveals phase separation in the alloys. These alloys can be interpreted as fine nanostructures, with length scales comparable to the periods of very thin superlattices. Electrical transport measurements along the film plane direction showed no significant reduction in electrical properties attributable to the interfaces between GaAs and Ge. Finally, our experimental findings help gain fundamental insight into nanoscale thermal transport in superlattices and are also useful for future improvement of thermoelectric performance using nanostructures.

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Research Organization:: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Research Foundation (NRF) (Singapore)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0001299; FG02-09ER46577; DMR-14-19807

OSTI ID:: 1466226

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1366562

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 110, Issue 22; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 8 works

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Cited By (2)

Growth and in-plane undulations of GaAs/Ge superlattices on [001]-oriented Ge and GaAs substrates: formation of regular 3D island-in-network nanostructures Liu, Hongfei; Jin, Yunjiang; Lin, Ming Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 6, Issue 47 https://doi.org/10.1039/c8tc04799e	journal	January 2018
Luminescence of III-IV-V thin film alloys grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition Jia, Roger; Zhu, Tony; Bulović, Vladimir Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5016443	journal	May 2018

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Title: Thermal conductivity of GaAs/Ge nanostructures

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