Article | REF: R2770 V2

Scanning thermal microscopy

Author: Séverine GOMES

Publication date: May 10, 2023

You do not have access to this resource.
Click here to request your free trial access!

Already subscribed? Log in!


Overview

Français

ABSTRACT

This article presents a set of scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) techniques dedicated to the thermal imaging of surfaces as well as the analysis of surface temperature, material thermophysical properties and heat transfer physical mechanisms at micro and nanoscales. It focuses on one of them: the SThM using resistive probes.

The technique is described in detail: its instrumentation and its different operating modes, the parameters influencing the measurement as well as the strategies proposed to carry out localized thermal measurements, including the current calibration methodologies applied to resistive probes.

Advices of good practice are given throughout the article, which also gives the main challenges and limitations of the SThM technique and the current trends for its development.

Read this article from a comprehensive knowledge base, updated and supplemented with articles reviewed by scientific committees.

Read the article

AUTHOR

  • Séverine GOMES: Research Director CNRS Centre d'Énergétique et de Thermique de Lyon, University of Lyon, CNRS, INSA Lyon, CETHIL, UMR5008, (France)

 INTRODUCTION

Over the past thirty years, nanoscience and nanotechnology have led to a growing need for fundamental knowledge of thermal and energetic properties at ever smaller scales, from micrometers to nanometers. In particular, the development of new materials and systems depends on significant progress in understanding energy transport at these scales. The technological and commercial activities of many industrial sectors, such as semiconductors, aeronautics, aerospace and information technology, are profoundly affected.

Precise thermal measurements on scales of less than 30 nm, for example, are undoubtedly needed to characterize and optimize the properties of nanostructured materials such as interphases and superlattices (nanoscale multilayers), nanoporous materials, nano-objects and nanomaterials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes or nanowires, which are already being integrated into composites and components. The aim is also to gain a better understanding of failure mechanisms in electronic and optoelectronic components, whose design is often based on theoretical analyses without appropriate experimental verification. These measurements will also improve the accuracy and validity of simulation tools for ultra-integrated technologies.

In addition to energy transport, any phenomenon involving exchanges of energy and entropy with the environment, such as changes in atomic structures or magnetic domains, requires or induces heat dissipation or cooling in some way. This includes phase changes and chemical and biochemical reactions. Nanoscale thermal analysis should enable us to study these ultra-localized phenomena.

In this context, SThM (Scanning Thermal Microscopy) is a promising method for thermal imaging, thermal measurements and the study of thermal transport phenomena at micro and nano scales. Its lateral thermospatial resolution can be as low as 50 nm. Microscopy is based on the principle of bringing a very small probe into contact or proximity with the object to be characterized, with the probe and object having different temperatures.

Currently mainly based on AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy), it benefits from its ability to position the probe very precisely in relation to the structure under study, while controlling the force between the two objects. The vector of information of interest is the heat flux exchanged between the tip and the sample, this flux being dependent on the temperature difference between the probe and the sample, as well as on the latter's thermophysical properties.

In SThM, the AFM probe is therefore used not only as a force sensor, but also as a detector of the amount of heat exchanged between the probe and the sample. While various physical phenomena and/or thermally-dependent...

You do not have access to this resource.

Exclusive to subscribers. 97% yet to be discovered!

You do not have access to this resource.
Click here to request your free trial access!

Already subscribed? Log in!


The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference

A Comprehensive Knowledge Base, with over 1,200 authors and 100 scientific advisors
+ More than 10,000 articles and 1,000 how-to sheets, over 800 new or updated articles every year
From design to prototyping, right through to industrialization, the reference for securing the development of your industrial projects

KEYWORDS

measurement   |   heat transfer   |   temperature   |   Calibration   |   scanning thermal microscopy   |   thermal imaging


This article is included in

Physical measurements

This offer includes:

Knowledge Base

Updated and enriched with articles validated by our scientific committees

Services

A set of exclusive tools to complement the resources

Practical Path

Operational and didactic, to guarantee the acquisition of transversal skills

Doc & Quiz

Interactive articles with quizzes, for constructive reading

Subscribe now!

Ongoing reading
Scanning thermal microscopy (SThM)