Anisotropy of the thermal conductivity in GaAs/AlAs superlattices

Nano Lett. 2013 Sep 11;13(9):3973-7. doi: 10.1021/nl4001162. Epub 2013 Aug 20.

Abstract

We combine the transient thermal grating and time-domain thermoreflectance techniques to characterize the anisotropic thermal conductivities of GaAs/AlAs superlattices from the same wafer. The transient grating technique is sensitive only to the in-plane thermal conductivity, while time-domain thermoreflectance is sensitive to the thermal conductivity in the cross-plane direction, making them a powerful combination to address the challenges associated with characterizing anisotropic heat conduction in thin films. We compare the experimental results from the GaAs/AlAs superlattices with first-principles calculations and previous measurements of Si/Ge SLs. The measured anisotropy is smaller than that of Si/Ge SLs, consistent with both the mass-mismatch picture of interface scattering and with the results of calculations from density-functional perturbation theory with interface mixing included.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Anisotropy*
  • Arsenicals / chemistry*
  • Gallium / chemistry*
  • Hot Temperature
  • Molecular Weight
  • Nanostructures
  • Silicon / chemistry
  • Thermal Conductivity*

Substances

  • Arsenicals
  • gallium arsenide
  • Gallium
  • Silicon