Document 2236609

Copyright © 2011 American Scientific Publishers
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Journal of
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Vol. 11, 9984–9988, 2011
Hot Electrons and Electron-Phonon Coupling in a
Cylindrical Nanoshell
Shi-Xian Qu1 ∗ , Ya-Ni Zhao1 , Lin Zhang1 , and Michael R. Geller2
1
Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics, School of Physics and Information Technology,
Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710062, China
2
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2451, USA
We use a standard model for the low-temperature electron-phonon interaction in metals to calculate the rate of thermal energy transfer between electrons and acoustic phonons in suspended
metallic nanoshells. The electrons are treated as three-dimensional and noninteracting, whereas
the vibrational modes are that of an thin cylindrical elastic shell of radius R with a free surface and
Delivered by Ingenta to:
thickness h. Disorder is neglected. The temperature dependence of the thermal power is obtained
Michael
Geller
analytically for this model, and a crossover
from the
T 3 dependence expected for one-dimensional
3
2
4
∗ IP : 72.194.211.160
2 3/2
phonons to a T /1 − + 9T /T 1 − dependence is obtained.
Sun, 06 Jan 2013 22:09:24
Keywords: Hot Electrons, Nanoshell.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
1. INTRODUCTION
The development of modern nanofabrication techniques
and low-temperature measurement technology enable us
to explore the mechanical properties of condensed matter at the nanoscale.1 In particular, the phonon thermal
conductance at low temperature has been of considerable
interest.1–5 In addition to its significance for investigating fundamental phonon physics and macroscopic quantum phenomena, it may find applications in nanoscale
bolometers and calorimeters with unprecedented sensitivity,3, 6, 7 and even in quantum information processing.8–10
It is known that the conduction electrons in a metal at
low temperature are only weakly coupled to the lattice
phonons.11, 12 Therefore, the electron–electron scattering
will cause electrons to equilibrate on a timescale that is
typically much shorter than the electron-phonon relaxation time, resulting in an electron distribution that is
thermal, but at a temperature higher than that of the lattice. Understanding this hot-electron effect is crucial in
studies of transport in semiconductors and metals at low
temperatures.13
The electron-phonon scattering rate in conductors has
been studied both theoretically14–16 and experimentally,16, 17
with good agreement between theory and experiment. The
theoretical work has focused on the rate of energy transfer
between electrons and acoustic phonons in an infinite bulk
metal. The weak coupling between electrons and phonons
∗
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
9984
J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 2011, Vol. 11, No. 11
allows separate temperatures Tel and Tph to be defined for
the electron and phonon subsystems, and at low temperatures significant differences in these temperatures are easily achieved. Assuming a deformation-potential coupling,
theory predicts that the rate of energy exchange P from
the electrons to the phonons is given by16
(1)
P = V Teln − Tphn
where n = 5 for bulk electrons and phonons, V is the volume of the system, and is a material parameter given
by
8 5 kB5 F2 Nel F (2)
=
3 4 vF vl4
Here n is the Riemann zeta function, F is the Fermi
energy, Nel is the electronic density of states (DOS)
per unit volume, is the mass density, vl is the bulk
longitudinal sound speed, and vF is the Fermi velocity.
Most of the experiments to date, however, have been
performed on thin metal films deposited on semiconducting substrates, whereas the theory has assumed bulk metals. The metal films typically have a thickness d of the
order of ten to several hundred nanometers, with lateral dimensions of a few microns. Although the electrons in the films are three dimensional (i.e., the Fermi
wavelength being much smaller than any of the physical dimensions), the phonons at low temperatures will
have wavelengths larger than d. Therefore, one expects
similar temperature dependence of the thermal power
described by Eq. (1), but with different pre-factors and
1533-4880/2011/11/9984/005
doi:10.1166/jnn.2011.5301
Qu et al.
Hot Electrons and Electron-Phonon Coupling in a Cylindrical Nanoshell
field equations,
exponents n ranging from n = 3 to 6.11, 12, 18, 19 In addi normalized over the phonon volume Vph
tion, there is a growing interest in the low-temperature
according to V d 3 r fn∗ · fn = nn . It will be convenient to
properties of electrons and phonons in mechanically susrewrite the electron-phonon interaction as
pended nanostructures,2, 4, 6, 7, 21–25 where the phonon spec
†
∗ †
H = gnq ck+q
ck an + gnq
ck−q ck a†n (7)
trum is strongly modified from that in a bulk metal.
kqn
Experiments have found that the reduction of phonon
dimensionality leads to a weak temperature dependence
with coupling constant
(smaller exponent) of the heat flux between electrons
2
and phonons.11, 18, 22, 23 In many cases the power exhibgnq ≡ F 2n −1/2 V −1 d 3 r
· fn e−iq·r
(8)
D+2
ited a P ∼T
temperature dependence, where D is
3
V
the phonon dimensionality. The T 3 dependence of the
The quantity we calculate is the thermal energy per unit
heat flux obtained for suspended one-dimensional metallic
time transferred from the electrons to the phonons,
nanowires in Ref. [26] also supports the above conjecture.
It stimulates us to investigate the hot-electron effect in a
P ≡ 2 n nem k → k − q − nab k → k + q
geometry of cylindrical nanoshell.
kqn
In the current work, we will propose a general expres(9)
sion for calculating the thermal power transferring from
3-dimensional electron to any D-dimensional phonon subwhere
system firstly, and then apply it to a prototype with geomeDelivered
to:
try of cylindrical nanoshell which approximates
a metallic by Ingenta
nem k → k − q = 2 gnq 2 nB n + 1nF k Michael
Geller
system with no band gap.
IP : 72.194.211.160
× 1 − nF k−q k−q − k + n Sun, 06 Jan 2013 22:09:24
2. GENERAL EXPRESSION FOR THE
THERMAL POWER
k
n
where ck† and ck are electron creation and annihilation operators, with k the momentum, and a†n and an
are bosonic phonon creation and annihilation operators. The vibrational modes, labeled by an index n, are
eigenfunctions of the continuum elasticity equation
vt2 × × u − vl2 · u = 2 u
(4)
for linear isotropic media, along with accompanying
boundary conditions. vt and vl are the bulk transverse
and longitudinal sound velocities. The electron-phonon
interaction H is described by the deformation potential
2 H ≡ F d 3 r † · u
(5)
3
V
with
ur =
2n −1/2 fn ran + fn∗ ra†n (6)
n
the quantized displacement field. The vibrational eigenfunctions fn r are defined to be solutions of the elasticity
J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 11, 9984–9988, 2011
is the golden-rule rate for an electron of momentum k
scattering to k − q while emitting a phonon n, and
nab k → k + q = 2gnq 2 nB n nF k × 1 − nF k+q k+q − k − n (11)
is the corresponding phonon absorption rate. nB is the Bose
distribution function with temperature Tph and nF is the
Fermi distribution with temperature Tel . The factor of 2 in
Eq. (9) accounts for spin degeneracy.
Before integrating Eq. (9) to obtain the exact expression for P , we have to make a statement on the phonon
wave vector q and the dimensionality (denoted by D)
felt by phonons according to different thermal wavelength
thermal = hvl /kB Tph at phonon temperature Tph and model
velocity vl . The wave vector q is a 3-dimensional vector and thus D = 3 when thermal is much less than the
dimension in any one of the three directions. It becomes
a 2-dimensional vector and D = 2 if thermal is larger than
the dimension in any one direction, but an 1-dimensional
vector and D = 1 if thermal is larger than the dimensions
in any two directions.
The integrations of Eq. (9) by considering three cases
gives a general expression of P for a metallic system consisting of a three-dimensional electron gas and a any Ddimensional phonon subsystem. The result (suppressing
factors of and kB ) is
m2 V ph P =
d−n /T
− /Tph
e el −1 e
−1
n 0
9985
RESEARCH ARTICLE
In Ref. [27], two of the authors have advanced a general
method for calculating the rate of thermal energy (thermal power) transfer based upon a kind of weighted DOS.
There, we consider the hot electron effect in a system
consisting of a three-dimensional electron gas and a threedimensional solid. The volume of the system is V and the
Hamiltonian reads
H = k ck† ck + n a†n an + H
(3)
(10)
Qu et al.
Hot Electrons and Electron-Phonon Coupling in a Cylindrical Nanoshell
RESEARCH ARTICLE
d D k g 2 nk
×
+Tel ln
2D k
1+expm2 /2k2 +k2 /8m−/2−/Tel ×
1+expm2 /2k2 +k2 /8m+/2−/Tel 3. HOT-ELECTRONS IN A
CYLINDRICAL NANOSHELL
In this section we consider a cylindrical metallic nanoshell
in which the external pressure on the inner surfaces
is equal to that on the outer surfaces, and the trans(12)
verse dimensions are far smaller than the length in the
z-direction, and the inner radius is R and the thickness
where, ph is the volume felt by phonons, which is not
is h. Disorder is neglected. For convenience, we may, in
necessarily equals to the system volume V . The logasome extend, assume that there is no band gap in the
rithmic term in P can be shown to be negligible in the
system. At the low temperature range we are interested,
temperature regime of interest and will be dropped.
the thermal wave length of electrons is far smaller than
The DOS weighted form of P (suppressing factors of the length and the thickness of the cylinder, and thus
and kB ) reads
electrons move 3-dimensionally. While the thermal wave
length of phonons is very smaller than the length but larger
2 2
D
2m F ph
than the thickness. Therefore, one may reasonably assume
dF /T
−
P=
9
e el − 1 e/Tph − 1
0
thin cylinder for the phonon counterpart. There has been
(13)
extensively study on the property of acoustic phonons in
where D is the Debye frequency, and F is a strainthin cylindrical shells.29–32 The thin cylindrical elastic shell
weighted vibrational DOS, defined by
might beto:
used as a model for the in-plane vibrations in
Delivered by Ingenta
33
In our calculations, we employ the result of
nanotubes.
Michael
F ≡ Un − n (14) Geller
Ref.
[29],
in
which
the eigenfunction reads,
IP : 72.194.211.160
n
⎞
⎛
Sun, 06 Jan 2013 22:09:24
−iCr
with
(19)
fr = ⎝ C ⎠ exp im + iqz z
C
z
1
d 3 rd 3 r · fn r · fn∗ r Un ≡
where is the azimuth angular, qz ≡ q/R is the wavevecV V
tor in the z-direction. Cr C and Cz are respectively the
dD k
−1 −ik·r−r ×
k
e
(15)
normalization
constants in three orthogonal directions. The
2D
eigenmodes are given by
Here Un can be interpreted as an energy associated with
mass-density fluctuations interacting via an potential determined by the last integration in Eq. (15). To this end
we have reduced the calculation of P to the calculation
of F . Allen28 has derived a related weighted-DOS
formalism.
For the conventional hot-electron effect in bulk materials,16 one deals with 3-dimensional phonon subsystem and
ph = V . Carrying out the last integration in Eq. (15) gives
Un =
1 3 3 · fn r
· fn∗ r d rd r
2 2 V V
r − r 2
(16)
where the longitudinal acoustic phonon eigenfunction with
momentum k is
eiq · r
(17)
fk = √ ek
V
Substituting this eigenfunction into Eq. (16) and carrying
out the integration, we obtain the weighted DOS
F =
1
3
2 2 vl4
(18)
The conventional expression for the net rate of energy
relaxation in Eq. (1) and the corresponding coefficient in
Eq. (2) can be easily reduced by this DOS.
9986
(20)
Im q c q 2 + m2 + 1
IIm q c − q 2 + m2 (21)
√
q 1 − 2
III
(22)
m=0 q c
1+q
√
q2 1 − 2
III
m q c √
(23)
m m2 + 1 + q 2
Here c ≡ vl /R is the cutoff frequency for the mode with
frequency I0 , q is the dimensionless wavevector, m is the
branch
index, − = 1 − /2, is the Poisson ratio, and
vl = E/1 − 2 is the longitudinal sound velocity (E is
Young’s modulus). In the axisymmetric case with m = 0
the I, II and III modes correspond to pure radial, torsional,
and longitudinal modes respectively. They correspond to
pure longitudinal modes, torsional, and radial respectively
in the large q limitation.
Simply calculation via Eq. (8) reveals that only the
axisymmetric modes with I0 and III
0 contribute to the
electron-phonon interaction. The corresponding dispersion
relations are
(24)
I0 q = c q 2 + 1
√
q 1 − 2
(25)
III
0 q = c
q +1
J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 11, 9984–9988, 2011
Qu et al.
Hot Electrons and Electron-Phonon Coupling in a Cylindrical Nanoshell
Here one may find that the minimum of I0 is always
bigger than the maximum of III
0 . The normalization constants for the first mode are respectively Cr = iA1 , C = 0
and Cz = qA1 with A1 ≡ V 2 + q 2 −1/2 . Those for the
second mode are Cr = −iqA2 , C = 0 and Cz = A2 1 +
2q + 2 q 2 /1 + q2 with A2 ≡ 1 + q2 V 2 q 2 1 + q4 +
1 + 2q + 2 q 2 2 −1/2 .
Obviously, phonons in this subsystem move quasi-one
dimensionally and thus we have ph = L with L the
length
of the cylindrical nanoshell. Employing identity
−1 −ikz−z dk
k
e
= isignz − z, Eq. (15) gives
−
Uqmz ≡
i 3 3 d rd r · fn r
· fn∗ r signz − z
2V V
The strain-weighted DOS has distinct high- and lowfrequency character crossing over at = c because F1 has a cut off at this frequency. Clearly, c defines a nature
crossover temperature
T ≡
c
kB
(32)
distinguishing the high and low temperature behaviors.
At high temperature where T > T , F1 dominates the
contribution, and the large frequency asymptotic behavior
of strain-weighted DOS reads
F = F1 2vl2
(26)
leading to the high-temperature expression of thermal
power
where the superscript m = 1 or 2 distinguishes two vibra
tional modes associated with the two dispersion rela(33)
P = 1D L 3 D /Tel Tel3 − 3 D /Tph Tph3
tions defined in Eqs. (24) and (25), respectively. The
Delivered by Ingenta to:
strain-weighted vibration DOS is
here 1D is the material parameter defined by
F = F1 + F2 with Fm defined by
Fm ≡ Uqmz − 1 qz Michael Geller
(27)
IP : 72.194.211.160
Sun, 06 Jan 2013 22:09:24
qz
=
V
(28)
Here, F1 is valid in the range confined by ≥ c .
Carrying out the integrations over r, r , and q, we obatin
1 − 2 /2c
(29)
F1 =
2vl2 1 − 2 − 2 /2c
and
F2 =
2vl2
√
1 − 2
√
1 − 2 − /c
2
1 − 2 /2c
×
√
2 2 /2c + 1 − 2 /2c 2 1 − 2 − /c 2
(30)
Then the thermal power can be calculated by the following
formula,
2m2 F2 L D
dF1 /T
−
P =
9
e el − 1 e/Tph − 1
c
D
+
− /Tph
dF2 /T
e el − 1 e
−1
0
(31)
J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 11, 9984–9988, 2011
The T 3 law for the thermal power for cylindrical
nanoshells revealed by this relation is the same to that
in one dimensional phonon systems where electron cooling devices are manipulated.23, 26 The crossover from the
T 5 law in three-dimensional phonon systems to the T 3
law in their one-dimensional counterparts shows that
the electron-phonon interaction changes very significantly
when dimensionality of the phonon subsystem reduces,
which agrees with the effect of phonon dimensionality on the electron-phonon coupling observed by other
researches.11, 19, 23, 26
At low-temperature when T < T , the dominant contributions to the thermal power are due to the small frequency
asymptotical behavior of F , which are
≥ c
2vl2
1
3
+
F2 2vl2 1 − 2 c 1 − 2 3/2
F1 Combining these two expressions with Eq. (31), we get
the low-temperature expression of the thermal power
P = 1D L Tel Tel3 − Tph Tph3
+ 1D L Tel Tel4 − Tph Tph4
(36)
9987
RESEARCH ARTICLE
iL dq − m q
4RV −
× d 3 rd 3 r · fn r
· fn∗ r signz − z
3kB3 kF4
(34)
18 2 vl2
y
and m y ≡ m − 1!m−1 0 dx xm−1 /ex − 1. It can
be shown that the 3 factors are equal to unity at temperatures above T but sufficiently smaller than the Debye
temperature. Thus, expression (33) reduces to
(35)
P = 1D L Tel3 − Tph3
1D =
Qu et al.
Hot Electrons and Electron-Phonon Coupling in a Cylindrical Nanoshell
where
23 D /T − 3 c /T 1 − 2
9
T ≡ /T T 1 − 2 3/2 4 D
108118) and by the U. S. National Science Foundation
under grant CMS-0404031.
T ≡
References and Notes
1. A. N. Cleland, Foundamentals of Nanomechanicss, Spinger-Verlag,
Berlin (2002).
2. K. Schwab, E. A. Henriksen, J. M. Worlock, and M. L. Roukes,
Nature (London) 404, 974 (2000).
At extremely low temperature, i.e., T T , D /T 1,
3. M. L. Roukes, Physica B 263, 1 (1999).
and thus 3 and 4 factors tend to unity. Therefore, we
4. A. N. Cleland, D. R. Schmidt, and C. S. Yung, Phys. Rev. B
have T = 1/1 − 2 and T = 9/T 1 − 2 3/2 ,
64, 172301 (2001).
5. M. Blencowe, Phys. Rep. 395, 159 (2004); Science 304, 56 (2004).
and hence expression (36) reduces to
6. C. S. Yung, D. R. Schmidt, and A. N. Cleland, Appl. Phys. Lett.
81, 31 (2002).
Tel3 − Tph3 9 Tel4 − Tph4
(37)
+ P = 1D L
7. D. R. Schmidt, C. S. Yung, and A. N. Cleland, Phys. Rev. B
2
2
3/2
1−
T 1 − 69, 140301(R) (2004).
8. A. D. Armour, M. P. Blencowe, and K. C. Schwab, Phys. Rev. Lett.
which reveals a crossover of the T 3 law for the temperature
88, 148301 (2002).
9. A. N. Cleland and M. R. Geller, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 070501 (2004).
dependence of the thermal power at low temperature.
10. X. Zou and W. Mathis, Phys. Lett. A 324, 484 (2004).
In order to get some sense on the order of the
11. J. T. Karvonen
Delivered
to: and I. J. Maasilta, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 145503 (2007).
characteristic quantities, we take the corresponding
mate-by Ingenta
12. J. T. Karvonen and I. J. Maasilta, J. Phys.: Conference Series
rial parameters from those of a thin-walled hollowMichael
cylin- Geller
92, 012043 (2007).
IP : 72.194.211.160
ratio
der of metallic carbon.31, 34, 35 They are the Poisson
13. P. Y. Yu and M. Cardona, Fundamentals of Semiconductors: Physics
Sun,the
06mass
Jan 2013 22:09:24
and Materials Properties, Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1999).
= 0186, the Young’s modulus E = 1050 Gpa,
14. W. A. Little, Can. J. Phys. 37, 334 (1959).
density = 226 g/cm3 , and the Fermi energy F = 10 eV.
15. V. F. Gantmakher, Rep. Prog. Phys. 37, 317 (1974).
The calculated longitudinal sound velocity is vl = 219 ×
16. F. C. Wellstood, C. Urbina, and John Clarke, Phys. Rev. B 49, 5942
4
−10
−1
−3
Wm K ,
10 m/s, the parameter 1D = 108 × 10
(1994).
and the crossover temperature T = 246 K which is in the
17. M. L. Roukes, M. R. Freeman, R. S. Germain, R. C. Richardson,
and M. B. Ketchen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 422 (1985).
temperature zone that the current technology can achieve.
18. J. F. DiTusa, K. Lin, M. Park, M. S. Isaacson, and J. M. Parpia,
Hence we expect the experimental observation of this
Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 1156 (1992).
crossover phenomenon.
19. A. Vinante, P. Falferi, R. Mezzena, and M. Mück, Phys. Rev. B
75, 104303 (2007).
20. P. M. Echternach, M. R. Thoman, C. M. Gould, and H. M. Bozler,
4. CONCLUSION
Phys. Rev. B 46, 10339 (1992).
21. M. C. Cross and R. Lifshitz, Phys. Rev. B 64, 085324 (2001).
We have advanced a general expression for calculating
22. L. J. Taskinen and I. J. Maasilta, Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 143511 (2006).
the thermal power transferring from 3-dimensional elec23. J. T. Muhonen, A. O. Niskanen, M. Meschke, Yu. A. Pashkin, J. S.
tron to any D-dimensional acoustic phonon subsystem.
Tsai, L. Sainiemi, S. Franssila, and J. P. Pekola, Appl. Phys. Lett.
94, 073101 (2009).
It transfers the calculation of thermal power to the com24.
B. Huard, H. Pothier, D. Esteve, and K. E. Nagaev, Phys. Rev. B
putation of the strain-weighted DOS for phonon sub76, 165426 (2007).
systems of any dimensionality. Employing this method,
25. A. Gusso and L. G. C. Rego, Phys. Rev. B 75, 045320 (2007).
we have investigated the hot-electron effect in free sus26. F. W. J. Hekking, A. O. Niskanen, and J. P. Pekola, Phys. Rev. B
pended cylindrical nanoshells, in which electrons behave
77, 033401 (2008).
27. S.-X. Qu, A. N. Cleland, and M. R. Geller, Phys. Rev. B 72, 224301
three-dimensionally but phonons are confined to quasi-one
(2005).
dimension. The temperature dependence of the thermal
28. P. B. Allen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 1460 (1987).
power is obtained analytically, and the low-temperature
29. M. A. Stroscio and M. Dutta, Phonons in Nanostructures, Cambridge
crossover from the T 3 to T 3 /1 − 2 + 9T 4 /T ∗ 1 −
University Press, Cambridge (2001).
2 3/2
dependence is also deduced. The result shows that
30. Y. M. Sirenko, M. A. Stroscio, and K. W. Kim, Phys. Rev. E 53, 1003
(1996).
reduction of phonon dimensionality leads to weak tem31. G. D. Mahan, Phys. Rev. B 65, 235402 (2002).
perature dependence (smaller exponent) of the heat flux
32. Y. M. Sirenko, M. A. Stroscio, and K. W. Kim, Phys. Rev. E 54, 1816
between electrons and acoustic phonons.
(1996).
33. H. Suzuura and T. Ando, Phys. Rev. B 65, 235412 (2002).
Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the
34. M. F. Lin and K. W.-K. Shung, Phys. Rev. B 47, 6617 (1993).
35. F. Liu, P. B. Ming, and J. Li, Phys. Rev. B 76, 064120 (2007).
Key Project of Chinese Ministry of Education. (No.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
≡ 4/3
Received: 18 December 2010. Accepted: 19 May 2011.
9988
J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 11, 9984–9988, 2011