THIN-FILM MATERIALS AND MINIMUM THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY

Abstract

The theoretical minimum thermal conductivity can be used to model heat transport in a wide variety of bulk and thin-film materials with strong atomic-scale disorder. To explore the possibility of using metastable microstructures in thin-film materials to achieve significant reductions in conductivity, we present experimental results - obtained using the 3 omega method in the temperature range 77 - 400 K - on two novel systems. (1)The thermal conductivity of a low-dielectric-constant ''flowable oxide'' (HSiO, hydrogen silsesquiox1.5ane) is greatly reduced relative to SiO . (2)The thermal conductivity of stabilized 2 zirconia SiO multilayers is unchanged by solid - solid interfaces separated by nanometer 2 length scales.