Marta Vicencio

Major: NanoEngineering
Mentors: Yujie Quan, Professor Bolin Liao

Time-Domain Thermoreflectance Measurement of Electric Field Effect on the Thermal Conductivity of Gallium Nitride

Gallium nitride is a wide bandgap semiconductor with high electron mobility and a high breakdown voltage, which makes it a desirable candidate for electronic applications. Materials with high thermal conductivities are also valued in electronics because they maintain the efficiency of the device while also avoiding failure due to temperature rise. We plan to utilize the time-domain thermoreflectance technique to analyze the electric field effect on the thermal conductivity of gallium nitride. When induced with an external out-of-plane electric field, we predicted that the thermal conductivity of gallium nitride would increase in the direction parallel to the field [1]. Though issues involving the equipment could not be resolved in time to test the gallium nitride sample, further advances were made in the process.

[1] Quan, Yujie. “Electric Field Effect on the Thermal Conductivity of Wurtzite GaN.” Applied Physics Letters. Ed. 118. 09 April 2021 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0047372