Crossover temperature in electron–phonon heat exchange in layered nanostructures

Abstract

We study theoretically the effect of the effective dimensionality of phonon gas distribution on heat exchange between electrons and phonons in layered nanostructures. If we denote the electron temperature by Te and the phonon temperature by Tph, then the total heat power P is proportional—in general—to , the exponent x being dependent on the effective dimensionality of the phonon gas distribution. If we vary the temperature in a wide enough range, the effective dimensionality of the phonon gas distribution changes going through a crossover around some temperature, TC. These changes are reflected by a change in x. On the one hand, in a temperature range well below the crossover temperature TC only the lowest branches of the phonon modes are excited. They form a (quasi-)two-dimensional gas, with x = 3.5. On the other hand, well above TC, the phonon gas distribution is quasi-three-dimensional and one would expect to recover three-dimensional results, with x = 5. But this is not the case in our layered structure. The exponent x has a complicated, non-monotonic dependence on temperature forming a ‘plateau region’ just after the crossover temperature range, with x between 4.5 and 5. After the plateau region, x decreases, reaching values between 3.5 and 4 at the highest temperature used in our numerical calculations, which is almost two orders of magnitude higher than TC.