Abstract
Considerable progress has been made over the last ten years in understanding the thermoelectric behaviour of low dimensional transport systems. There are two regimes to consider. At low temperatures (below about 1K) the effect of phonons is negligible. This is the “diffusion” thermopower regime which we discuss briefly for 2D electron gases (2DEGS) in Section 2. In Section 3 we discuss a particularly interesting aspect of the formalism for 2DEGS which is that it may be modified easily to apply to the quantisation effects observed recently in quantum point contacts (van Wees et al, 1988; Wharam et al, 1988; van Houten et al, 1992; Molenkamp et al 1992).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Barraclough, R.J., Fromhold, T.M., Rodgers, P.J., Gallagher, B.L., Jezierski, A., Henini, M., Butcher, P.N., and Hill, G., 1993, in preparation for Phys. Rev. B.
Beenakker, C.W.J, and van Houten, H., 1991, Quantum transport in semiconductor nanostructures in Solid State Physics Vol 44, Ehrenreich and Turnball, eds, Academic Press, New York.
Butcher, P.N., 1990, Thermal and electric transport formalism for electronic microstructures with many terminals, J.Phys: Condens Matter 2: 4869.
Butcher, P.N., 1992, Theory of electron transport in low dimensional structures, in Physics of Low -Dimensional Semiconductor Structures, P.N. Butcher, N.H. March and M.P. Tosi, eds, Plenum, New York.
Cantrell, D.G. and Butcher, P.N., 1985, Lifetime broadening of the subband structure in the thermopower of narrow channel systems, J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys. 18: 6639.
Cantrell, D.G. and Butcher, P.N., 1987, A calculation of the phonon drag contribution to the thermopower of quasi-2D electrons coupled to 3D phonons J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys. 20: 1985, 1993.
Chamberlain, J.M., 1992, private communication.
Fletcher, R., Harris, J.J. and Foxon, CT., 1991, The effect of second subband occupation on the thermopower of a high mobility GaAs-Al0.33 Ga0.33 As heterojunction, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 6: 54.
Fletcher, R., Maan, J.C., Ploog, K., and Weimann, G., 1986, Thermoelectric properties of GaAs-Ga1-xA1xAs heterojunctions at high magnetic fields, Phys. Rev. B 33: 7122.
Fromhold, T.M., Butcher, P.N., Qin, G., Mulimani, B.G., Oxley, J.P., and Gallagher, B.L., 1992, 180° phase shift of phonon drag magnetothermopower oscillations in high mobility 2DEGS, Surf. Sci. 263: 183.
Fromhold, T.M., Butcher, P.N., Qin, G., Mulimani, B.G., Oxley, J.P., and Gallagher, B.L., 1993, Phonon drag magnetothermopower oscillations in GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunctions, submitted to Phys. Rev. B.
Gallagher, B.L. and Butcher, P.N., 1992, Classical transport and thermoelectric effects in low dimensional and mesoscopic semiconductor structures, in Handbook on Semiconductors Vol. 1, P.T. Landsberg, ed., North Holland, Amsterdam
Gallagher, B.L., Oxley, J.P., Smith, M.J. and Butcher, P.N., 1990, The phonon drag and diffusion thermopower of a Si inversion layer, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 2: 775.
Guenault, A.M., 1971, A physical picture of phonon drag thermoelectric power, J. Phys. F: Metal Phys. 1: 373.
Hayden, R.K., Maude, D.K., Eaves, L., Valadares, E.C., Henini, M., Sheard, F.W., Hughes, O.H., Portal, J.C., and Cury, L., 1991, Probing the hole dispersion curves of a quantum well using resonant magnetotunneling spectroscopy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66: 1749.
Kittel, C, 1976, Introduction to Solid State Physics, John Wiley, New York.
Kubakaddi, S.S., Butcher, P.N. and Mulimani, B.G., 1989, Phonon drag thermopower of a 2D electron gas in a quantising magnetic field, Phys. Rev. B. 40: 1377.
Lyo, S.K. 1988, Low temperature phonon drag thermoelectric power in heterojunctions, Phys. Rev. B 38: 6345
Lyo, S.K., 1989, Magnetothermopower oscillations of the phonon drag thermoelectric power in heterojunctions, Phys. Rev. B 40: 6458
Molenkamp, C.W., Gravier, Th., van Houten, H., Buijk, O.J.A. and Mabesoone, M.A.A., 1992, Peltier coefficient and thermal conductance of a quantum point contact, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68: 3765.
Price, P.J., 1981, Two-dimensional electron transport in semiconducting layers, 1, phonon scattering, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 133: 217.
Qin, G., Fromhold, T.M., Butcher, P.N., Mulimani, B.G., Oxley, J.P., and Gallagher, B.L., 1993, Magnetothermopower in silicon MOSFETS, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 5: 1355.
Ruf. C, Brummeil, M.A., Gmelin, E. and Ploog, K. 1989, The influence of subband structure on the thermopower of GaAs-AlxGa1-xAs heterostructures, Superlat, and Microstruct. 6: 175.
Smith, M.J., and Butcher, P.N., 1989a, A calculation of the effect of screening on phonon-drag thermoelectric power in a Si MOSFET, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 1: 1261a
Smith, M.J. and Butcher, P.N., 1989b, Inelastic scattering and the temperature dependence of thermoelectric power in quasi-2D systems, J. Phys. C: Condens. Matter 1: 4859.
van Houten, H., Molenkamp, L.W., Beenakker, C.W.J, and Foxon, CT., 1992, Thermo-electric properties of quantum point contacts, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 7: B215.
van Wees, B.J., von Houten, H., Beenakker, C.W., Williamson, J.G., Kouwenhoven, L.P., van der Marel, D. and Foxon, C.T., 1988, Quantised conductance of point contacts in a two-dimensional electron gas, Phys. Rev. Letts, 60: 848.
Walukiewicz, W., 1985, High mobility in modulation-doped heterostructures: GaAs-AlGaAs, Phys. Rev. B 31: 5557.
Wang, W.I., Mendez, E.E., Iye, Y., Lee, B., Kim, M.H., and Stillman G.E., 1986, High mobility two-dimensional hole gas in an Al0.26Ga0.74As/GaAs heterojunction, J. Appl. Phys. 60: 1834.
Wharam, D.A., Thornton, T.J., Newbury, R., Pepper, M., Ahmed, H., Frost, J.E.F., Hasko, D.G., Peacock, D.C., Ritchie, D.A. and Jones, G.A.C., 1988, One dimensional transport and the quantisation of the ballistic resistance, J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys. 21: L209.
Ziman, J.M., 1989, “Principles of the Theory of Solids”, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Butcher, P.N. et al. (1994). The Thermoelectric Behaviour of two Dimensional Electron and Hole Gases and Quantum Point Contacts. In: Paszkiewicz, T., Rapcewicz, K. (eds) Die Kunst of Phonons. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2455-7_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2455-7_22
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-306-44677-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-2455-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive