Uncertainty assessment for measurements performed in the determination of thermal conductivity by scanning thermal microscopy

Abstract

Although its use has been restricted to relative studies, scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) is presented today as a candidate technique for performing quantitative measurement of thermal properties at the nanoscale, thanks to the development of relevant calibration protocols. Based on the principle behind near-field microscopes, SThM uses a miniaturized probe to quantify heat transfers versus samples of various thermal conductivities: since the thermal conductivity of a sample cannot be directly estimated, a direct measurand related to the heat transfer must be defined and measured for each sample. That is the reason why the SThM technique applied to thermal conductivity determination belongs to the family of inverse methods. In this work we aim to qualify the technique from a metrological point of view. For the first time, assessment of uncertainty associated with the direct measurand is performed, yielding a result of less than 2%.

A Review on Principles and Applications of Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM)

“…Discarding the photodetector and laser emitter was advantageous for operating SThM in vacuum environment 9d,37,65. This helped to precisely control the cyclic load force that prevents probe deterioration and sample surface damage, and for eliminating the induced thermal drift of the probe signal with 37% reduction in the maximum measurement error . High piezoresistive deflection (257 μV nm −1 ) sensitivity, probe sensitivity, and ease of calibration using the double scan39f along with sub‐100 nm tip radius empowered nanoscale temperature quantification and localized heat generation …”

Anomalous Low Thermal Conductivity of Atomically Thin InSe Probed by Scanning Thermal Microscopy

“…Here, we use scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) [ 34,35 ] to probe and image the thermal response of 2D InSe with nanoscale resolution. We present studies on atomically thin InSe flakes with different thickness and/or in‐plane area.…”

Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement — Part 6: Developing and using measurement models

“…The measurement model used is NOTE Reference [63] provides further information on the additional terms appearing in figure 12 and on other aspects of this example. E.2 5M method E.2.1 Another comprehensive method is to determine the plausible error causes according to five categories, as used in [29,144], namely:…”