Unwrapping a full temporal cycle in time domain thermoreflectance for enhanced measurement sensitivity in thermally insulating materials.

Time delayed pump-probe measurement techniques, such as Time Domain Thermoreflectance (TDTR), have opened up a wealth of opportunities for metrology at ultra-fast timescales and nanometer length scales. For nanoscale thermal transport measurements, typical thermal lifetimes used to measure thermal conductivity and thermal boundary conductance span from sub-picosecond to ∼6 nanoseconds. In this work, we demonstrate a simple rearrangement and validation of a configuration that allows access to the entire 12.5 ns time delay available in the standard pulse train. By reconfiguring a traditional TDTR system so that the pump and probe arrive concurrently when the delay stage reaches its midpoint, followed by unwrapping the temporal scan, we obtain a dataset that is bounded only by the oscillator repetition rate. Sensitivity analysis along with conducted measurements shows that great increases in measurement sensitivity are available with this approach, particularly for thin films with low thermal conductivities.

Theoretical Paradigm for Thermal Rectification via Phonon Filtering and Spectral Confinement.

Significant thermal rectification has the potential to revolutionize approaches to controlled heat flow and enable breakthrough technologies such as phononic computing. We demonstrate a framework based on phonon population confinement and filtering that has potential to reach rectifications that are an order of magnitude larger than previous literature. With the use of a straightforward modification of the phonon gas model, we illustrate theoretical thermal rectification in a thin film of diamond (1-10 nm) graded to dimensions >1 µm of between 25% and 250%. Utilizing this mechanism for thermal rectification sets the stage for significant development in thermal devices.

Nanoscale Wetting and Energy Transmission at Solid/Liquid Interfaces.

Understanding the effects and limitations of solid/liquid interfaces on energy transport is crucial to applications ranging from nanoscale thermal engineering to chemical synthesis. Until now, the majority of experimental evidence regarding solid/liquid interactions has been limited to macroscale observations and experiments. The lack of experimental works exploring nanoscale solid/liquid interactions has been accentuated as the body of knowledge from theory and simulations at these scales has exploded in recent years. In this study, we expand on current nanoscale thermal measurement techniques in order to more fully understand solid/liquid interfacial energy transport. We use thermal ablation threshold measurements on thick Au films in various liquids as a metric to describe thermal transport at the Au/liquid interface. Furthermore, using ultrafast pump-probe experiments, we gain insight into this transport through picosecond ultrasonic coupling at solid/liquid interfaces with known macroscopic observations. We find significant variations in both the ablation threshold and the damping of the acoustic modes within the Au films depending on nanoscopic interactions at the solid/liquid interface rather than typical macroscale metrics such as acoustic mismatch, measured contact angle, and work of adhesion.

High resolution steady-state measurements of thermal contact resistance across thermal interface material junctions.

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are meant to reduce the interfacial thermal resistance (RT) across bare metal contacts in commercial electronics packaging systems. However, there is little scientific consensus governing material design for optimized thermal performance. This is principally due to the inability to separate the effects of the intrinsic material thermal properties from the magnitude of heat flow crossing the TIM-substrate junction (RC). To date, efforts to isolate these effects using standard thermal interface material characterization techniques have not been successful. In this work, we develop an infrared thermography-based steady-state heat meter bar apparatus with a novel in situ thickness measurement system having 0.5 nm sensitivity. These in situ thickness measurements allow us to simultaneously determine RT and RC independently across current state-of-the-art TIMs with ±5% uncertainty. In this work, thermal pastes with bond line thicknesses ranging between 5 and 50 µm are used to illustrate the capability of the apparatus to measure extremely thin materials that are expected to achieve relatively low values of RT. Results suggest that the contribution of the thermal contact resistance to the total thermal resistance can range from 5% to 80% for these materials. This finding highlights the need for appropriate metrology and independent measurements of RC and RT to better optimize thermal interface materials for a number of important electronics applications.

Localized thin film damage sourced and monitored via pump-probe modulated thermoreflectance.

Damage in the form of dewetting and delamination of thin films is a major concern in applications requiring micro- or nano-fabrication. In non-contact nanoscale characterization, optical interrogation must be kept to energies below damage thresholds in order to conduct measurements such as pump-probe spectroscopy. In this study, we show that the thermoreflectance of thin films can indicate the degree of film damage induced by a modulated optical heating source. By adjusting the absorbed power of the pump heating event, we identify the characteristics of the change in the thermoreflectance signal when leading up to and exceeding the damage threshold of gold films of varying thicknesses on glass substrates.

Molecular Tuning of the Vibrational Thermal Transport Mechanisms in Fullerene Derivative Solutions.

Control over the thermal conductance from excited molecules into an external environment is essential for the development of customized photothermal therapies and chemical processes. This control could be achieved through molecule tuning of the chemical moieties in fullerene derivatives. For example, the thermal transport properties in the fullerene derivatives indene-C60 monoadduct (ICMA), indene-C60 bisadduct (ICBA), [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid butyl ester (PCBB), and [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid octyl ester (PCBO) could be tuned by choosing a functional group such that its intrinsic vibrational density of states bridge that of the parent molecule and a liquid. However, this effect has never been experimentally realized for molecular interfaces in liquid suspensions. Using the pump-probe technique time domain thermotransmittance, we measure the vibrational relaxation times of photoexcited fullerene derivatives in solutions and calculate an effective thermal boundary conductance from the opto-thermally excited molecule into the liquid. We relate the thermal boundary conductance to the vibrational modes of the functional groups using density of states calculations from molecular dynamics. Our findings indicate that the attachment of an ester group to a C60 molecule, such as in PCBM, PCBB, and PCBO, provides low-frequency modes which facilitate thermal coupling with the liquid. This offers a channel for heat flow in addition to direct coupling between the buckyball and the liquid. In contrast, the attachment of indene rings to C60 does not supply the same low-frequency modes and, thus, does not generate the same enhancement in thermal boundary conductance. Understanding how chemical functionalization of C60 affects the vibrational thermal transport in molecule/liquid systems allows the thermal boundary conductance to be manipulated and adapted for medical and chemical applications.

Using Laser-Induced Thermal Voxels to Pattern Diverse Materials at the Solid-Liquid Interface.

We describe a high-resolution patterning approach that combines the spatial control inherent to laser direct writing with the versatility of benchtop chemical synthesis. By taking advantage of the steep thermal gradient that occurs while laser heating a metal edge in contact with solution, diverse materials comprising transition metals are patterned with feature size resolution nearing 1 µm. We demonstrate fabrication of reduced metallic nickel in one step and examine electrical properties and air stability through direct-write integration onto a device platform. This strategy expands the chemistries and materials that can be used in combination with laser direct writing.

Dysprosium-doped cadmium oxide as a gateway material for mid-infrared plasmonics.

The interest in plasmonic technologies surrounds many emergent optoelectronic applications, such as plasmon lasers, transistors, sensors and information storage. Although plasmonic materials for ultraviolet-visible and near-infrared wavelengths have been found, the mid-infrared range remains a challenge to address: few known systems can achieve subwavelength optical confinement with low loss in this range. With a combination of experiments and ab initio modelling, here we demonstrate an extreme peak of electron mobility in Dy-doped CdO that is achieved through accurate 'defect equilibrium engineering'. In so doing, we create a tunable plasmon host that satisfies the criteria for mid-infrared spectrum plasmonics, and overcomes the losses seen in conventional plasmonic materials. In particular, extrinsic doping pins the CdO Fermi level above the conduction band minimum and it increases the formation energy of native oxygen vacancies, thus reducing their populations by several orders of magnitude. The substitutional lattice strain induced by Dy doping is sufficiently small, allowing mobility values around 500 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) for carrier densities above 10(20) cm(-3). Our work shows that CdO:Dy is a model system for intrinsic and extrinsic manipulation of defects affecting electrical, optical and thermal properties, that oxide conductors are ideal candidates for plasmonic devices and that the defect engineering approach for property optimization is generally applicable to other conducting metal oxides.