Suppression of thermal conductivity in InxGa1-xN alloys by nanometer-scale disorder

T. Tong; D. Fu; A. X. Levander; W. J. Schaff; B. N. Pantha; N. Lu; B. Liu; I. Ferguson; R. Zhang; J. Y. Lin; H. X. Jiang; J. Wu; David G. Cahill

doi:10.1063/1.4798838

Suppression of thermal conductivity in In_xGa_1-xN alloys by nanometer-scale disorder

T. Tong, D. Fu, A. X. Levander, W. J. Schaff, B. N. Pantha, N. Lu, B. Liu, I. Ferguson, R. Zhang, J. Y. Lin, H. X. Jiang, J. Wu, David G. Cahill

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We have systematically measured the room-temperature thermal conductivity of epitaxial layers of In_xGa_1-xN alloys with 15 different Indium compositions ranging from 0.08 to 0.98 by time-domain thermoreflectance method. The data are compared to the estimates of the strength of phonon scattering by cation disorder. The thermal conductivity is in good agreement with the theoretical modeling results based on the mass difference for In-rich (x > 0.9) and Ga-rich (x 0.2) compositions. At intermediate compositions (0.2 x 0.9), the thermal conductivity is strongly suppressed below the values expected for homogeneous alloys. We attribute this suppression of thermal conductivity to phonon scattering by nanometer-scale compositional inhomogeneities in alloys.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	121906
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	102
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4798838
State	Published - Mar 25 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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10.1063/1.4798838

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@article{7d28d2b070764e7699967ebc00375bc1,

title = "Suppression of thermal conductivity in InxGa1-xN alloys by nanometer-scale disorder",

abstract = "We have systematically measured the room-temperature thermal conductivity of epitaxial layers of InxGa1-xN alloys with 15 different Indium compositions ranging from 0.08 to 0.98 by time-domain thermoreflectance method. The data are compared to the estimates of the strength of phonon scattering by cation disorder. The thermal conductivity is in good agreement with the theoretical modeling results based on the mass difference for In-rich (x > 0.9) and Ga-rich (x 0.2) compositions. At intermediate compositions (0.2 x 0.9), the thermal conductivity is strongly suppressed below the values expected for homogeneous alloys. We attribute this suppression of thermal conductivity to phonon scattering by nanometer-scale compositional inhomogeneities in alloys.",

author = "T. Tong and D. Fu and Levander, {A. X.} and Schaff, {W. J.} and Pantha, {B. N.} and N. Lu and B. Liu and I. Ferguson and R. Zhang and Lin, {J. Y.} and Jiang, {H. X.} and J. Wu and Cahill, {David G.}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by Office of Naval Research (Grant No. N000141010525) through the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory MRL at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The XRD and RBS work at Berkeley was supported by the NSF (Grant No. ECCS-1101779). The InGaN epi-growth work at Texas Tech University is supported by NSF (Grant No. DMR-0906879). The InGaN MOCVD growth work and XRD from University of North Carolina at Charlotte were supported by Energy Production Infrastructure Center (EPIC).",

year = "2013",

month = mar,

day = "25",

doi = "10.1063/1.4798838",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "102",

journal = "Applied Physics Letters",

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publisher = "American Institute of Physics Publising LLC",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Suppression of thermal conductivity in InxGa1-xN alloys by nanometer-scale disorder

AU - Tong, T.

AU - Fu, D.

AU - Levander, A. X.

AU - Schaff, W. J.

AU - Pantha, B. N.

AU - Lu, N.

AU - Liu, B.

AU - Ferguson, I.

AU - Zhang, R.

AU - Lin, J. Y.

AU - Jiang, H. X.

AU - Wu, J.

AU - Cahill, David G.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by Office of Naval Research (Grant No. N000141010525) through the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory MRL at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The XRD and RBS work at Berkeley was supported by the NSF (Grant No. ECCS-1101779). The InGaN epi-growth work at Texas Tech University is supported by NSF (Grant No. DMR-0906879). The InGaN MOCVD growth work and XRD from University of North Carolina at Charlotte were supported by Energy Production Infrastructure Center (EPIC).

PY - 2013/3/25

Y1 - 2013/3/25

N2 - We have systematically measured the room-temperature thermal conductivity of epitaxial layers of InxGa1-xN alloys with 15 different Indium compositions ranging from 0.08 to 0.98 by time-domain thermoreflectance method. The data are compared to the estimates of the strength of phonon scattering by cation disorder. The thermal conductivity is in good agreement with the theoretical modeling results based on the mass difference for In-rich (x > 0.9) and Ga-rich (x 0.2) compositions. At intermediate compositions (0.2 x 0.9), the thermal conductivity is strongly suppressed below the values expected for homogeneous alloys. We attribute this suppression of thermal conductivity to phonon scattering by nanometer-scale compositional inhomogeneities in alloys.

AB - We have systematically measured the room-temperature thermal conductivity of epitaxial layers of InxGa1-xN alloys with 15 different Indium compositions ranging from 0.08 to 0.98 by time-domain thermoreflectance method. The data are compared to the estimates of the strength of phonon scattering by cation disorder. The thermal conductivity is in good agreement with the theoretical modeling results based on the mass difference for In-rich (x > 0.9) and Ga-rich (x 0.2) compositions. At intermediate compositions (0.2 x 0.9), the thermal conductivity is strongly suppressed below the values expected for homogeneous alloys. We attribute this suppression of thermal conductivity to phonon scattering by nanometer-scale compositional inhomogeneities in alloys.

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