The thermal conductivity of Si–Ge superlattices with superlattice periods 30<L<300 Å, and a Si0.85Ge0.15 thin film alloy is measured using the 3ω method. The alloy film shows a conductivity comparable to bulk SiGe alloys while the superlattice samples have a thermal conductivity that is smaller than the alloy. For 30<L<70 Å, the thermal conductivity decreases with decreasing L; these data provide a lower limit to the interface thermal conductance G of epitaxial Si–Ge interfaces: G> 2 × 109 W m−2 K−1 at 200 K. Superlattices with relatively longer periods, L>130 Å, have smaller thermal conductivities than the short-period samples. This unexpected result is attributed to a strong disruption of the lattice vibrations by extended defects produced during lattice-mismatched growth.

Heat transport in 20–300 nm thick dielectric films is characterized in the temperature range of 78–400 K using the 3ω method. SiO2 and SiNx films are deposited on Si substrates at 300 °C using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). For films >100 nm thick, the thermal conductivity shows little dependence on film thickness: the thermal conductivity of PECVD SiO2 films is only ∼10% smaller than the conductivity of SiO2 grown by thermal oxidation. The thermal conductivity of PECVD SiNx films is approximately a factor of 2 smaller than SiNx deposited by atmospheric pressure CVD at 900 °C. For films <50 nm thick, the apparent thermal conductivity of both SiO2 and SiNx films decreases with film thickness. The thickness dependent thermal conductivity is interpreted in terms of a small interface thermal resistance RI. At room temperature, RI∼2×10−8 K m2 W−1 and is equivalent to the thermal resistance of a ∼20 nm thick layer of SiO2 .

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The thermal conductivity of sputtered amorphous-Ge2Sb2Te5 (a-GST)/ZnS:SiO2 and crystalline-Ge2Sb2Te5 (c-GST)/ZnS:SiO2 multilayer films has been measured in the temperature range between 50 and 300 K using the 3ω method. The conductivity data in the direction of the cross plane of the films showed lower values than the series conductance of the constituent layers, which was calculated from the thermal conductivity of thick a-GST, c-GST, and ZnS:SiO2 films measured independently. From the reduction in the multilayer thermal conductivity, the thermal boundary resistance at the interface between GST and ZnS:SiO2 films was calculated. The boundary resistance in the c-GST multilayer was lower than that for the a-GST case in the whole measured temperature region.

The thermal conductivities of α-Al2O3 and κ-Al2O3 wear-resistant coatings are measured using the 3ω method in the temperature range 80<T<600 K. The coatings are 13 μm thick and deposited by chemical vapor deposition on substrates of Co-cemented WC. The α-Al2O3 coating has a thermal conductivity comparable to sapphire at T>300 K. The relatively small thermal conductivity of κ-Al2O3, a factor of ∼3 smaller than α-Al2O3, suggests that this metastable phase of alumina can be applied as an effective thermal barrier for cutting tools.