Thermal properties of multiwalled carbon nanotubes probed with Electron Thermal Microscopy

Orateur : Merijntje BRONSGEEST (CEA INAC/SP2M - Eurotalents fellowship)

Due to their interesting intrinsic properties and 1D nature, carbon nanotubes may be part of emerging solutions to the heat management challenge in nanoelectronics in multiple ways. For example, they may serve as thermal interface materials, as interconnects in existing Si-based electronics, or as a building block in carbon-based electronics. Of crucial importance for any of these applications is the (in)ability to get heat in and out of the nanotube, which can be characterized with thermal contact resistance. Thermal contact resistance for carbon nanotubes is not fully understood yet, and the guiding theories are “under construction”. Measuring it is a challenge of its own as it is intimately connected to the thermal conductivity of the connected materials which are not necessarily known that well either. We have studied the thermal properties of carbon nanotubes using an in-situ TEM technique (Electron Thermal Microscopy [T. Brintlinger et al., Nano Lett. 8, 582 (2008)]), that allows for thermal imaging with a resolution of 100 nm, combined with finite-element modeling. It will be shown that even resting on a substrate, the thermal conductivity of a carbon nanotube is still high, and that more exotic heat transfer mechanisms (e.g. electron-surface polariton interaction) may be important.

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