Lattice thermal conductivity of GaAs

Abstract

A new approach to evaluate the relaxation times of various collision events responsible for thermal transport has been reported through which various deficiencies of earlier models of lattice thermal conductivity have been resolved. These investigations involve the evaluation of the phonon Green functions via a non-perturbative approach. The new expressions of relaxation times expressions for scattering of phonons by boundaries, atomic impurities, phonon-phonon scattering, electron-phonon scattering are the new features of the theory. The lattice thermal conductivity of three samples of GaAs has been analyzed on the basis of modified Callaway model and fairly good agreement between theory and experimental observations has been reported.