We report on noise and thermal conductance measurements taken in order to determine an upper bound on the performance of graphene as a terahertz photon detector. The main mechanism for sensitive terahertz detection in graphene is bolometric heating of the electron system. To study the properties of a device using this mechanism to detect terahertz photons, we perform Johnson noise thermometry m...

A control system using a low-drift power-feedback signal was implemented applying thermal waves, giving a sensor output independent of resistance drift and thermo-electric offset voltages on interface wires. Kelvin-contact sensing and power control is used on heater resistors, thereby inhibiting the influence of heater resistance drift. The thermal waves are detected with a sensing resistor usi...

In the present paper, we present results of thermal conductivity measurements in commercially-available, chemical vapor deposition grown, heat-treated and non-heat-treated individual carbon nanofibers (CNFs). The thermal conductivity measurements are made using the T-type probe experimental configuration using a Wollaston wire probe inside a high resolution scanning electron microscope. The res...

Hybrid organic aerogels consisting of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), and graphene oxide nanosheets (GONSs) were prepared using an environmentally friendly freeze-drying process. The material properties of these fabricated aerogels were measured and analyzed using various characterization techniques including compression testing, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravim...

This work describes an experimental study of thermal conductance across multiwalled carbon nanotube CNT array interfaces, one sided Si-CNT-Ag and two sided Si-CNT-CNT-Cu , using a photoacoustic technique PA . Well-anchored, dense, and vertically oriented multiwalled CNT arrays have been directly synthesized on Si wafers and pure Cu sheets using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. With th...

This paper describes an experimental study of thermal contact conductance enhancement enabled by carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays synthesized directly on silicon wafers using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Testing based on the one-dimensional reference bar method occurred in a high-vacuum environment with radiation shielding, and temperature measurements were made with an infrared camer...

Measuring in-plane thermoelectric properties of submicron thin films has remained a challenging task. Here we report a method based on a suspended microdevice for four-probe measurements of the Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, and thermoelectric figure of merit of patterned indium arsenide (InAs) nanofilms assembled on the microdevice. The contact thermal resi...

The increasing power and reduced die size of CPUs used in computers increases a need for significantly improved thermal interface materials (TIM). The TIM is used to reduce contact resistance at the CPU-heat sink interface. This work provides a state-of-the-art assessment on “thermal interface materials,” including fundamentals, materials used, their performance, and how interface resistance is...

Contact thermal lithography is a method for fabricating patterns based on thermal effects. In contrast to photolithography, where resolution is limited by the wavelength of light used in the exposure process, thermal lithography is limited by thermal diffusion. A traditional metal-glass photomask is brought into contact with a wafer coated with a thermally sensitive polymer. The mask-wafer comb...

A low resistance Ohmic contact to p-type GaN is essential for reliable operation of electronic and optoelectronic devices. Such contacts have been made using Ni/Au and Pd / Au contacts to p-type Mg-doped GaN (1.41x10 cm) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition ( MOCVD ) on ( 0001 ) sapphire substrates. Thermal evaporation was used for the deposition of those metals followed by annealing...