Role of optical phonon in Ge thermal conductivity

We report on the contribution of optical phonon decay into acoustic phonon to the thermal conductivity [k(T)] of semiconductors. We have considered this mechanism as an acoustic phonon generation rate within the full modified Callaway theory to accurately describe experimental data of k(T) for Ge as a function of isotopic composition. The proposed model requires only one adjustable parameter for each mode. Our approach to describe k(T) in semiconductors is found to provide much better agreement with the experimental results than previously reported models, which did not account for the role of optical phonon. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.