Abstract The Fourier and the hyperbolic heat conduction equations were solved numerically to simulate a frequency-domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) experiment. Numerical solutions enable isolation of pump and probe laser spot size effects and use of realistic boundary conditions. The equations were solved in time domain and the phase lag between the temperature of the transducer (averaged over the probe laser spot) and the modulated pump laser signal was computed for a modulation frequency range of 200 kHz–200 MHz. Numerical calculations showed that extracted values of the thermal conductivity are sensitive to both the pump and probe laser spot sizes, while analytical solutions (based on Hankel transform) cannot isolate the two effects. However, for the same effective (combined) spot size, the two solutions are found to be in excellent agreement. If the substrate (computational domain) is sufficiently large, the far-field boundary conditions were found to have no effect on the computed phase lag. The interface conductance between the transducer and the substrate was found to have some effect on the extracted thermal conductivity. The hyperbolic heat conduction equation yielded almost the same results as the Fourier heat conduction equation for the particular case studied. The numerically extracted thermal conductivity value (best fit) for the silicon substrate considered in this study was found to be about 82–108 W/m/K, depending on the pump and probe laser spot sizes used.
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Frequency-domain probe beam deflection method for measurement of thermal conductivity of materials on micron length scale
Time-domain thermoreflectance and frequency-domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) have been widely used for non-contact measurement of anisotropic thermal conductivity of materials with high spatial resolution. However, the requirement of a high thermoreflectance coefficient restricts the choice of metal coating and laser wavelength. The accuracy of the measurement is often limited by the high sensitivity to the radii of the laser beams. We describe an alternative frequency-domain pump-probe technique based on probe beam deflection. The beam deflection is primarily caused by thermoelastic deformation of the sample surface, with a magnitude determined by the thermal expansion coefficient of the bulk material to measure. We derive an analytical solution to the coupled elasticity and heat diffusion equations for periodic heating of a multilayer sample with anisotropic elastic constants, thermal conductivity, and thermal expansion coefficients. In most cases, a simplified model can reliably describe the frequency dependence of the beam deflection signal without knowledge of the elastic constants and thermal expansion coefficients of the material. The magnitude of the probe beam deflection signal is larger than the maximum magnitude achievable by thermoreflectance detection of surface temperatures if the thermal expansion coefficient is greater than 5 × 10 −6 K −1 . The uncertainty propagated from laser beam radii is smaller than that in FDTR when using a large beam offset. We find a nearly perfect matching of the measured signal and model prediction, and measure thermal conductivities within 6% of accepted values for materials spanning the range of polymers to gold, 0.1–300 W/(m K).
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- Award ID(s):
- 1720633
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10412205
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Review of Scientific Instruments
- Volume:
- 94
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0034-6748
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 014903
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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