Some Contributions to the Theory of Electrical Conductivity, Thermal Conductivity and Thermoelectric Power in Semiconductors

Abstract

The theory of transport phenomena in semiconductors is extended to include the effects of `phonon drag' on electrons and `electron drag' on phonons. A simple phenomenological theory is developed first, and it is shown that this gives a good semi-quantitative account of the effects under investigation Commencing with the Boltzmann equation for electrons and phonons, the electrical conductivity, the thermal conductivity and the thermoelectric coefficients are calculated exactly, under certain simplifying assumptions. Where possible, the theoretical results are compared with experimental data and it is shown that general, though not exact, agreement prevails.