Anisotropic Behavior of the Thermoelectric Power and the Thermal Conductivity in a Unidirectional Lateral Superlattice: A Typical Anisotropic System Exhibiting Two Distinct Nernst Coefficients

TL;DR

This paper analytically investigates the anisotropic thermoelectric and thermal conductivities in a unidirectional lateral superlattice, revealing distinct Nernst coefficients and the importance of small-angle scattering effects in GaAs/AlGaAs 2DEGs.

Contribution

It provides new analytic formulas for conductivity tensors in ULSLs and highlights the anisotropic behavior and differences between Nernst coefficients due to small-angle scattering.

Findings

Distinct Nernst coefficients $S_{xy}$ and $S_{yx}$ in anisotropic systems

Anisotropic behavior of thermopower tensor components

Small-angle scattering significantly affects Nernst coefficients

Abstract

We have calculated the thermoelectric conductivity tensor $\varepsilon_{ij}$ and the thermal conductivity tensor $\lambda_{ij}$ of a unidirectional lateral superlattice (ULSL) ($i,j = x,y$, with the $x$-axis aligned to the principal axis of the ULSL), %, given as the first- and the second-order moments, employing based on the asymptotic analytic formulas of the electrical conductivity tensor $\sigma_{ij}$ in the literature valid at low magnetic fields where large numbers of Landau levels are occupied. With the resulting analytic expressions, we clarify the conditions for the Mott formula (Wiedemann-Franz law) to be applicable with high precision to $\varepsilon_{ij}$ ($\lambda_{ij}$). We further present plots of the commensurability oscillations $\delta\varepsilon_{ij}$, $\delta\lambda_{ij}$, $\delta\kappa_{ij}$, and $\delta S_{ij}$ in $\varepsilon_{ij}$, $\lambda_{ij}$, (an alternative, more standard definition of) the thermal conductivity tensor $\kappa_{ij}$, and the thermopower tensor $S_{ij}$, calculated using typical parameters for a ULSL fabricated from a GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Notable features of the $\delta S_{ij}$ are (i) anisotropic behavior ($\delta S_{xx} \ne \delta S_{yy}$) and (ii) the dominance of the $xy$ component over the other components ($|\delta S_{xy}| \gg |\delta S_{yx}|, |\delta S_{xx}|, |\delta S_{yy}|$). The latter clearly indicates that the two Nernst coefficients, $S_{xy}$ and $S_{yx}$, can be totally different from each other in an anisotropic system. Both (i) and (ii) are at variance with the previous theory and are attributable to the inclusion of a damping factor due to the small-angle scattering characteristic of GaAs/AlGaAs 2DEGs, which have not been taken into consideration in $\delta S_{ij}$ thus far.