Measuring Extreme Thermal Conductivity Ranges

SSTR enables the measurement of extreme thermal conductivity ranges that prove challenging for traditional metrology approaches, including materials ranging from diamon to PCBM.

The Challenge

The Solution

SSTR can measure material thermal conductivities as high as that of diamond and as low as that of PCBM (the material with the lowest known thermal conductivity of any fully dense solid). This broad range can be effectively measured due to SSTR’s employment of a front-side pump, coupled with a probe technique with measurement volumes that can be controlled to optimize measurement sensitivity to the specific sample thickness of interest.

Given the ability to control the measurement volume and probe the temperature change of areas of the sample that are less than the sample dimensions, SSTR offers the ability to measure these thermal conductivity extremes. Crucially, SSTR can measure the thermal conductivity of materials directly, without needing knowledge of the specific heat of the material; this capability is a major differentiator between SSTR and thermal diffusivity/effusivity techniques.  This capability enabled us to accurately determine the thermal conductivity of this wide range of materials with extreme thermal conductivities.

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