(Invited) The Landauer Approach to Electron and Phonon Transport. (14th September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Maassen, Jesse; Lundstrom, Mark
• Is Part Of: ECS transactions. Volume 69:Number 9(2015)
• Page Start: 23
• Page End: 36
• Publication Date: 2015-09-14
• Subjects: Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; Electrochemistry; Periodicals; Electronic journals; Electronic journal; 541.37
• DOI: 10.1149/06909.0023ecst
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1938-5862

Abstract

Abstract : In this paper we review the Landauer approach to electron, thermoelectric and phonon transport. We show how this formalism is physically intuitive, provides a common language for electrons and phonons, seamlessly spans from ballistic to diffusive transport regimes, supports materials of varying dimensionality (1D, 2D and 3D), and readily handles full dispersions and mean-free-path distributions with computational ease. There are two main quantities of interest which apply to both electron and phonon transport; the number of modes and the mean-free-path for backscattering. The former can be easily calculated from a material's dispersion, while the latter depends also on the particular scattering physics. If both are known, all thermoelectric coefficients can be straightforwardly calculated and interpreted. The simple and physically intuitive form of the equations provides insight to enable the exploration of new materials, devices and electro-thermal applications.