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Universal phonon mean free path spectra in crystalline semiconductors at high temperature
Freedman, J. P., Leach, J. H., Preble, E. A., Sitar, Z., Davis, R. F., & Malen, J. A. (2013). Universal phonon mean free path spectra in crystalline semiconductors at high temperature. Scientific Reports, 3, Article 2963. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep02963
Thermal conductivity in non-metallic crystalline materials results from cumulative contributions of phonons that have a broad range of mean free paths. Here we use high frequency surface temperature modulation that generates non-diffusive phonon transport to probe the phonon mean free path spectra of GaAs, GaN, AlN, and 4H-SiC at temperatures near 80 K, 150 K, 300 K, and 400 K. We find that phonons with MFPs greater than 230 +/- 120 nm, 1000 +/- 200 nm, 2500 +/- 800 nm, and 4200 +/- 850 nm contribute 50% of the bulk thermal conductivity of GaAs, GaN, AlN, and 4H-SiC near room temperature. By non-dimensionalizing the data based on Umklapp scattering rates of phonons, we identified a universal phonon mean free path spectrum in small unit cell crystalline semiconductors at high temperature.
