Study on Phonon Drag Effect and Phonon Transport in Thin Si-on-Insulator Layers

Abstract

The Seebeck coefficient of P-doped ultrathin Si-on-insulator (SOI) layers is investigated for the application to a highly-sensitive thermopile infrared photodetector. It is found that the Seebeck coefficient originating from the phonon drag is significant in the lightly doped region and depends on the carrier concentration with increasing carrier concentration above ~5×1018 cm-3. On the basis of Seebeck coefficient calculations considering both electron and phonon distribution, the phonon-drag part of SOI Seebeck coefficient is mainly governed by the phonon transport, in which the phonon-phonon scattering process is dominant rather than the crystal boundary scattering even in the SOI layer with a thickness of 10 nm. This fact suggests that the phonon-drag Seebeck coefficient is influenced by the phonon modes different from the thermal conductivity.