Calculations of the lattice thermal conductivity in the wurtzite phase were reported. A proposed model explicitly included phonon relaxation, on threading dislocations and impurities, which was typical of GaN. It was found that a decrease in the dislocation density by 2 orders of magnitude led to a corresponding increase in the thermal conductivity from 1.31 to 1.97W/cmK. This prediction was in very good agreement with experimental data obtained by means of scanning thermal microscopy.

Effect of Dislocations on Thermal Conductivity of GaN Layers. D.Kotchetkov, J.Zou, A.A.Balandin, D.I.Florescu, F.H.Pollak: Applied Physics Letters, 2001, 79[26], 4316-8