Development of Fourier Transform Ultrafast Laser Flash Method for Simultaneous Measurement of Thermal Diffusivity and Interfacial Thermal Resistance

The thermoreflectance technique is one of the few methods which can measure thermal diffusivity of thin films as thin as 100 nm or thinner in the cross-plane direction. The thermoreflectance method under rear-heat front-detect configuration is sometimes called ultrafast laser flash method because of its similarity to laser flash method. Up to now it has typically only been possible to attempt to evaluate the interfacial thermal resistance between the thin films by preparing and measuring several samples with different thicknesses. In this study, a method to directly determine interfacial thermal resistance by a single measurement of a thin film on substrate is represented, by analyzing the shape of thermoreflectance signals with analytical solutions in frequency domain and time domain. Thermoreflectance signals observed from metallic thin films on sapphire substrate with different thickness steps were analyzed by Fourier analysis and fitted by analytical equations with four parameters: heat diffusion time across the first layer, ratio of virtual heat sources, characteristic time of cooling determined by interfacial thermal resistance and relative amplitude of the signal. Interface thermal resistance between the thin film and substrate was able to be determined reliably with smaller uncertainty.