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Thermoelectric Transport Properties of Monolayer GaN Semiconductor

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Abstract

This study employs density functional theory, Boltzmann transport theory, and the Slack model to systematically investigate the thermoelectric properties of monolayer GaN across various temperatures. It reveals that monolayer GaN exhibits significant Seebeck coefficients and power factors, attributable to the energy band degeneracy and the unique electronic structure, particularly in p-type materials where power factors peak at 8 mWm−1K−2 at 300 K. The effect of temperature on each parameter was explored and it was found that the Seebeck coefficient increases and the conductivity decreases as the temperature increases, however, the power factor remains relatively constant, indicating that the variation in the ZT is predominantly governed by thermal conductivity. Computational analyses unveiled coupling between the optical and acoustic phonon branches, resulting in reduced thermal conductivity, with lattice thermal conductivity converging at 1.72 Wm−1K−1, at room temperature (300 K). Further, calculations reveal that temperature also affects thermal conductivity, with rising temperature, phonon scattering intensifies, reducing thermal conductivity and thereby boosting the ZT, which can reach up to 4.3 for p-type GaN at 1200 K. These findings underscore the exceptional thermoelectric performance of monolayer GaN, which has excellent potential for applications in waste heat recovery, and aerospace.

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Acknowledgment

This work is partially supported by High Performance Computing Platform of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (U2202253), the Basic Research Project for High-level Talents of Yunnan Province (KKRD202252093), the construction of high-level talents of Kunming University of Science and Technology (KKKP201763019), Kunming University of Science and Technology Analytical Testing Fund (2023T20170001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Jie He, Guozhen Zhao, Jianhua Liu & Tao Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming,, 650093, China

    Jie He, Guozhen Zhao, Jianhua Liu & Tao Zhang

  3. The Key Laboratory of Unconventional Metallurgy Ministry of Education, Kunming, 650093, China

    Jie He, Guozhen Zhao, Jianhua Liu & Tao Zhang

  4. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Materials and Technologies for Energy Storage, College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Zhenming Xu

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Correspondence to Jianhua Liu or Zhenming Xu.

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He, J., Zhao, G., Liu, J. et al. Thermoelectric Transport Properties of Monolayer GaN Semiconductor. J. Electron. Mater. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-025-12157-2

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  • DOI  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-025-12157-2

Keywords

  • Monolayer GaN
  • thermoelectric figure-of-merit
  • density-functional theory
  • thermoelectric materials

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