Measurement of thermal transport using time-resolved thermal wave microscopy

A theoretical and experimental analysis of a time resolved thermal wave microscopy (TRTWM) technique used for thermal transport measurements is presented. TRTWM utilizes elements of frequency and time domain laser based thermoreflectance techniques and is well suited to measure both lateral and cross plane thermal transport. A primary advantage of this method is that the pump and probe spot sizes do not have to be known accurately. Implementation of TRTWM to measure thermal transport in oxide substrates coated with thin metal films is demonstrated. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3653829]