Development of nanoscale thermal properties measurement technique by using near-field optics

The nanoscale thermal properties are becoming increasingly important for the thermal design of electronic devises as the MEMS technology makes progress. The thermal conductivity of nanoscale thin film is remarkably lower than that of bulk materials because of its various size effects. In addition, the nano-materials will have pointing defects or lattice imperfections during the production process. Therefore, nanoscale thermal properties measurement technique, which can be applied in-situ or in-process, is required. We have developed a new thermal properties measurement technique by using near-field optics, which targets spatial resolution better than 100 nm (up to 10 nm) and is applicable to measure the thermal properties of nanoscale materials in-situ. In this article, in order to check the validity of the control system, the topographic image of diffraction grating is monitored. Moreover, the temperature change of Al thin film is detected as a thermoreflectance signal. Finally, the capability of our present work, to measure the thermal properties of nanostructures, is discussed.