Thermal Energy Transport at Interfaces Between Metals and Molecules

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ABSTRACTNational Science FoundationProposal Number: CTS-0522594Principal Investigator: Lloyd, John R.Affiliation: Michigan State UniversityProposal Title: Thermal Energy Transport at Interfaces between Metals and MoleculesThis proposal was received as an unsolicited submission to the Chemical and Transport Systems Division and was funded by the Thermal Transport and Thermal Processing Program. Energy and communications are key technologies facing humankind today. The results of this project could have a major impact on both technologies. This project, with its focus on the thermal energy transport issues and will address one of the key issues facing molecular electronics. Molecular electronics have the potential to increase efficiency of the energy transport and production processes, and resolving the thermal barrier problem will only serve to hasten their use. The first objective is to experimentally and computationally develop the scientific foundation for understanding thermal energy transport across the barrier of metal-molecule and metal-molecule-semiconductor interfaces, the foundation elements for molecular scale electronic devices. Experiments will be conducted to measure the thermal conduction properties across the material interfaces using lasers pulses transient energy transport methods. On the computational aspect of the research, molecular dynamics simulations will be performed. This technique models the energy transport at the scale of the molecules and even sub-molecule scale. The combination of experiments and computations will provide fundamental knowledge and understanding on how energy moves across these molecular and sub-molecular, nano-structured material systems. The technical phase of the project will also include interactions with Professor Shigeo Maruyama and his students at the University of Tokyo as well as with Dr. Larry Niagara, Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff and Manager of the PanEnergy group at Motorola Laboratories. The second objective is to develop a multi-university education program in micro/nano thermo physics. The education program will bring together students and faculty from MSU and UCB for the first collaborative, distance-taught course. Through this course and through the collaboration with Professor Maruyama and his students, we will be able to bridge and launch new global cooperation and networking with tomorrow's leaders of our profession.