Measurement and evaluation of the interfacial thermal resistance between a metal and a dielectric

We used a sandwiched film structure of dielectric, metal, and dielectric to measure and also to estimate theoretically the metal-dielectric interfacial thermal resistance. In this structure, a metal layer with a thickness of about 10 nm, including chromium, titanium, aluminum, nickel, and platinum, is sandwiched between two SiO2 layers with a thickness of 100 nm prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The estimates, 10(-10)-10(-9) m(2) K W-1, calculated with a continuum two-fluid model are significantly smaller than the measured values, similar to 10(-8) m(2) K W-1. The continuum two-fluid model, according to the phenomena of electron-phonon nonequilibrium near the interface in a metal, cannot explain completely the cause of this metal-dielectric interfacial thermal resistance. From photographs of the transmission electron microscopy cross section, we argue that defects at an interface likely play an important role in the magnitude of the interfacial thermal resistance.