THERMOELECTRIC TRANSPORT IN QUANTUM-WELL SUPERLATTICES

A full theory of thermoelectric transport in superlattices, including the well width and energy dependence of the optical and acoustic phono n scattering and the effects of confinement in raising valley degenera cy is developed. It is shown that these features result in qualitative ly significant modifications in the predicted figure of merit of super lattice systems. Results are given for PbTe superlattices, and comment s are made on recent experimental results for such systems. (C) 1997 A merican Institute of Physics.