About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T26: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
Energy Materials for Sustainable Development
|
| Presentation Title |
Thermal Transport in the Ultra-Wide Bandgap Semiconductor AlxGa1-xN |
| Author(s) |
Alan McGaughey, Abhishek Pathak, Hariharan Ramasubramanian, Minsung An, Arnab Das, Jonathan Malen |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Alan McGaughey |
| Abstract Scope |
Ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors are an emerging research frontier in high-frequency-switching and high-power-density electronics. The AlxGa1-xN alloy is of interest because its bandgap can be tuned by controlling the composition. High device power densities, which result in Joule heating, and low alloy thermal conductivities, however, lead to thermal management challenges. In this talk, I will discuss three modeling-focused projects aimed at understanding the nature of thermal transport in AlxGa1-xN. First, we built a machine-learned interatomic potential (MLIP) that can explicitly include atomic disorder, allowing for an assessment of the impact of mass and force disorder on thermal conductivity. Second, we applied the MLIP to investigate how graded alloy layers, which offer electrical and mechanical benefits, can also improve thermal transport. Third, we performed first principles-based calculations to assess how an electric field impacts alloy phonon properties and thermal conductivity in an operating device. |