Data Storage Systems Center

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Nanosecond Thermoreflectance System

Location: HH D307
Nanoscale Heat Transfer Lab

Professor Mehdi Asheghi

The thermoreflectance system is a powerful tool to measure the thermal conductivity of thin films that are used in the data storage and semiconductor industry. The system includes:

1. Spectra-physics Nd:YAG pulse laser system, to provide the 100mJ@532nm laser pulse with duration ~ 10ns.
2. A CW low-power probe laser (HeNe@632nm) to measure the temperature rise of sample.
3. High speed photodiode + preamplifier + 500MHz oscilloscope for data collection and processing.

The pulsed laser is used to heat up the thin film sample and its surface temperature decay is measured by sensing the intensity change of the probe laser reflected from sample surface. The thermal conductivity of the thin film can be extracted from the shape of the surface temperature decay. The thermoreflectance system is suitable for the characterization of low thermal conductivity thin films with thickness below 50nm.

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