Thermoelectric transport perpendicular to thin-film heterostructures calculated using the Monte Carlo technique

The Monte Carlo technique is used to calculate electrical as well as thermoelectric transport properties across thin-film heterostructures. We study a thin InGaAsP barrier layer sandwiched between two InGaAs contact layers, when the barrier thickness is in the $50\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}\char21{}2000\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}$ range. We found that with decreasing size, the effective Seebeck coefficient is increased substantially. The transition between pure ballistic thermionic transport and fully diffusive thermoelectric transport is also described.