A detailed theory of nonisothermal electron transport perpendicular to multilayer superlattice structures is presented. The current–voltage (I – V) characteristics and the cooling power density are calculated using Fermi–Dirac statistics, density-of-states for a finite quantum well and the quantum mechanical reflection coefficient. The resulting equations are valid in a wide range of temperatur...

An analytical model which matches thermionic-emission-diffusion of holes across the emitter-base heterojunction with drift-diffusion transport across a graded base has been developed and used to examine the performance capabilities of InP-based Pnp heterojunction bipolar transistors ~HBTs!. Hole drift-diffusion across the emitter-base space charge region is shown to be of comparable importance ...

Global climate imperatives require a worldwide shift away from greenhouse gasemitting activities such as fossil fuel combustion. Concentrated solar thermal installations are particularly appealing as they can store a fraction of their power in the form of heat to provide baseload power, yet current conversion efficiencies prevent them from reaching competitive market prices. One extremely promi...

Patrick Abraham John E. Bowers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of California–Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California 93106-9560 Abstract. Active refrigeration of optoelectronic components through the use of monolithically grown thin-film solid-state coolers based on III-V materials is proposed and investigated. Enhanced cooling power compared to the thermoelectric e...

Microfabricated electron emitters have been studied for half a century for their promising applications in vacuum electronics. However, tunable microfabricated electron emitters with fast temporal response and controllable electron emission still proves challenging. Here, we report the scaling down of thermionic emitters to the microscale using microfabrication technologies and a Joule-heated m...