Four-phonon processes in the thermal conductivity of GaSb

Phonon thermal conductivity of GaSb in the 300-700 K temperature range is studied by the light pulsed heating which is aimed at estimation of contributions of different polarized branches of acoustic oscillations into lattice thermal conductivity. The role of optico-acoustic interactions and multiphonon processes in phonon-phonon scattering at high temperatures is discussed. It is shown that the X thermal conductivity caused by the current carriers is negligibly small, and the Xsub(ph) phonon conductivity changes depending on temperature according to the Xsub(ph) approximately Tsup(-1.4) law. While calculating Xsub(ph) according to the Holland model taking into account phonon scattering on point defects the phonon thermal conductivity is given as a sum of contributions from longitudinal and transverse low-frequency Xsub(th1) and high-frequency Xsub(th2) acoustic phonons. It is established that at T>500 K Xsub(ph) is caused only by high-frequency transverse phonons and to explain the observed Xsub(ph) dependence on temperature it is necessary to introduce four-phonon process along with the three-phonon processes into intraphonon scattering