Open Access

ARTICLE

Stress Field Effects on Phonon Properties in Spatially Confined Semiconductor Nanostructures

by L.L. Zhu¹, X.J. Zheng¹

1 Key Laboratory of Mechanics on Western Disaster and Environment, Ministry of Education, P.R.China, and Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, College of Civil Engineering andMechanics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, P.R. China.
2 Coresponding Author. Tel: +86-931- 8912112, Fax: +86-931-8625576. Email: zhulinl03@lzu.cn(Linli Zhu), xjzheng@lzu.edu.cn (Xiaojing zheng)
3 Present address: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,Hong Kong, P.R. China. Email: mmllzhu@polyu.edu.hk (Linli Zhu)

Computers, Materials & Continua 2010, 18(3), 301-320. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmc.2010.018.301

Abstract

The phonon properties of spatially confined nanofilms under the preexisting stress fields are investigated theoretically by accounting for the confinement effects and acoustoelastic effects. Due to the spatial confinement in low-dimensional structures, the phonon dispersion relations, phonon group velocities as well as the phonon density of states are of significant difference with the ones in bulk structures. Here, the continuum elasticity theory is made use of to determine the phonon dispersion relations of shear modes (SH), dilatational modes (SA) and the flexural modes (AS), thus to analyze the contribution of stress fields on the phonon performance of confined nanofilms. Our numerical calculations indicate that the phonon properties can be modified by the preexisting stress fields significantly. The influence of the stress field on the phonon energy, phonon group velocity and the phonon density of states are sensitive to the strength and the direction of stress fields. The results in this paper can offer an alternative and applicable approach for phonon engineering to control the phonon properties in semiconductor nanostructures.

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Keywords

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