The Monte Carlo technique is used to calculate electrical as well as thermoelectric transport properties across thin film heterostructures. We study a thin InGaAsP barrier layer sandwiched between two InGaAs contact layers, when the barrier thickness is in 50nm-2000nm range. We found that with decreasing size, the effective Seebeck coefficient is increased substantially. The transition between pure ballistic thermionic transport and fully diffusive thermoelectric transport is also described.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0610056,
title = {Thermoelectric transport perpendicular to thin film heterostructures using Monte Carlo technique},
author = {Mona Zebarjadi and Ali Shakouri and Keivan Esfarjani},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0610056},
year = {2009}
}