Weak effects of electron-phonon interactions on the lattice thermal conductivity of wurtzite GaN with high electron concentrations

Abstract

Wurtzite gallium nitride (GaN) has great potential for high-frequency and high-power applications due to its excellent electrical and thermal transport properties. However, enhancing the performance of GaN-based power electronics relies on heavy doping. Previous studies showed that electron-phonon interactions have strong effects on the lattice thermal conductivity of GaN due to the Fr\"ohlich interaction. Surprisingly, our investigation reveals weak effects of electron-phonon interactions on the lattice thermal conductivity of n-type GaN at ultra-high electron concentrations and the impact of the Fr\"ohlich interaction can be ignored. The small phonon-electron scattering rate is attributed to the limited scattering channels, quantified by the Fermi surface nesting function. In contrast, there is a significant reduction in the lattice thermal conductivity of p-type GaN at high hole concentrations due to the relatively larger Fermi surface nesting function. Meanwhile, as p-type GaN has relatively smaller electron-phonon matrix elements, the reduction in lattice thermal conductivity is still weaker than that observed in p-type silicon. Our work provides a deep understanding of thermal transport in doped GaN and the conclusions can be further extended to other wide-bandgap semiconductors, including $\beta$-Ga2O3, AlN, and ZnO.