Improvements in thermionic cooling through engineering of the heterostructure interface using Monte Carlo simulations

A Stephen, G M Dunn, C H Oxley , J Glover, M Montes Bajo, D R S Cumming, A Khalid, M Kuball

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A self-consistent Ensemble Monte Carlo (EMC) model was developed to simulate the thermionic effect in heterostructure barrier coolers. The model was validated on an InGaAs-InGaAsP heterostructure device of variable barrier height and width, producing good quantitative agreement with previous literature results. The operation of the cooler was found to be a complex and intricate process depending on the field, conduction band and details of barrier structure. When applied to a GaAs-AlGaAs micro-cooler there was good agreement with the experimental results. Importantly, very small alterations in the barrier structure were found to lead to considerable changes in device performance
Original languageEnglish
Article number043717
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Applied Physics
Volume114
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jul 2013

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