Picosecond Transient Thermoreflectance: Time-resolved Studies of Thin Film Thermal Transport

The advent of new and sophisticated material growth processes (molecular beam epitaxy, chemical vapor deposition and ion sputter deposition-) has produced new exotic materials such as amorphous alloys and compositionally modulated structures [1]. The atomic level structure of these materials can be proved by techniques such as x-ray diffraction. The electrical and thermal transport properties are also used to characterize these materials, which are usually deposited as thin films onto supporting substrates. Although the substrate may be electrically isolated from the film, complete thermal isolation is more difficult to achieve and thermal transport measurements are complicated.