The High Temperature Thermal Conductivity of Semiconductor Alloys

A theory of the high temperature lattice thermal conductivity of semiconducting alloys is described in which normal processes are taken into account by the use of Callaway's method. This theory is in good agreement with data on germanium-silicon alloys, published recently by Abeles et al., but it is shown that the theory implies that the transport of heat is largely by transverse phonons, whilst direct investigation of the scattering processes suggests that longitudinal phonons should predominate. Some possible reasons for this discrepancy are put forward.