Phonon properties of group IV materials for thermoelectric applications

We report on the phonon properties of group IV materials for thermoelectric applications evaluated by Raman spectroscopy and inelastic x-ray scattering technique, which can directly detect phonon energy. The effects of oxidation, interface properties, alloying, etc. on thermal conductivity characteristics were evaluated in detail. The experimental results show that the change of the interface (SiO
₂
/Si) properties and atom position (alloying) for group IV materials dramatically influence on the phonon scattering with respect to the viewpoint of phonon energy.