Ultra-low acoustic-phonon-limited mobility and giant phonon-drag thermopower in MgZnO/ZnO heterostructures

摘要

We present numerical simulations of the acoustic-phonon-limited mobility,$\mu_{ac}$, and phonon-drag thermopower, $S^{g}$, in two-dimensional electrongases confined in MgZnO/ZnO heterostructures. The calculations are based on theBoltzmann equation and are made for temperatures in the range 0.3-20 K andsheet densities $0.5$-$30\times 10^{15}$ m$^{-2}$. The theoretical estimationsof $\mu_{ac}$ are in good agreement with the experiment without any adjustableparameters. We find that the magnitude of $\mu_{ac}$ is dramatically decreasedin relation to GaAs based heterostructures. The phonon-drag thermopower,$S^{g}$, which according to Herring's expression is inversely proportional to$\mu_{ac}$ is severely increased exceeding 200 mV/K at $T=5$ K depending onsheet density. The giant values of $S^{g}$ lead to a strong improvement of thefigure of merit $ZT$ at low temperatures. Our findings suggest that MgZnO/ZnOheterostructures can be candidates for good thermoelectric materials atcryogenic temperatures.