Thermal conduction in thin films measured by optical surface thermal lensing

Thermal conduction across thin films is measured optically by using the surface thermal lensing effect. Pump-probe laser measurements combined with numerical modeling are used to study thermal conduction in a variety of materials as thin as 10 nm. The method is relatively simple, robust, rapid, and offers an alternative to current techniques. Thermal conductivity in gold films is found to drop from 300 to 100 W/Km when the film thickness is reduced from 2000 to 100 nm. Results for silver, tin and aluminum films are also presented and compared with results from other studies. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3490185]