title: Significant reduction of lattice thermal conductivity by the electron-phonon interaction in silicon with high carrier concentrations: a first-principles study.
abstract: The electron-phonon interaction is well known to create major resistance to electron transport in metals and semiconductors, whereas fewer studies are directed to its effect on phonon transport, especially in semiconductors. We calculate the phonon lifetimes due to scattering with electrons (or holes), combine them with the intrinsic lifetimes due to the anharmonic phonon-phonon interaction, all from first principles, and evaluate the effect of the electron-phonon interaction on the lattice thermal conductivity of silicon. Unexpectedly, we find a significant reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity at room temperature as the carrier concentration goes above 10(19)  cm(-3) (the reduction reaches up to 45% in p-type silicon at around 10(21)  cm(-3)), a range of great technological relevance to thermoelectric materials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Bolin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Jiawei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huberman
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA.|Institute for Advanced Materials, Devices and Nanotechnology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Keivan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Esfarjani
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen