NER: Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer in Individual Nanowires/Tubes

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Nanowires/tubes have the potential to contribute significantly to the continued size reduction of micro/nano-mechanical systems. Knowledge of the thermal characteristics of nanowires/tubes is the basis for predicting, controlling, and achieving desired thermal performance of micro- and nanosized devices. This one-year exploratory research is to develop a novel experimental characterization tool to characterize the thermal transport along nanowires/tubes. The proposed experiment involves modulated laser beam heating on one side of a substrate while nanowires/tubes have been grown perpendicularly on the other side. Variation of the thermal radiation from the laser-heated side is detected and related to the thermophysical properties of nanowires/tubes. The unique thermal depth profiling capability of the experiment makes it possible to identify and characterize the thermal conductivity of nanowires/tubes and the thermal contact resistance between nanowires/tubes and the substrate. The quantitative investigation of this thermal contact resistance is a first step, also an essential step, toward the thermal design of joints between nanowires/tubes and micro- and nanodevices.