Mechanisms of nonequilibrium electron-phonon coupling and thermal conductance at interfaces
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland 21401 (United States)
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87123 (United States)
We study the electron and phonon thermal coupling mechanisms at interfaces between gold films with and without Ti adhesion layers on various substrates via pump-probe time-domain thermoreflectance. The coupling between the electronic and the vibrational states is increased by more than a factor of five with the inclusion of an ∼3 nm Ti adhesion layer between the Au film and the non-metal substrate. Furthermore, we show an increase in the rate of relaxation of the electron system with increasing electron and lattice temperatures induced by the laser power and attribute this to enhanced electron-electron scattering, a transport channel that becomes more pronounced with increased electron temperatures. The inclusion of the Ti layer also results in a linear dependence of the electron-phonon relaxation rate with temperature, which we attribute to the coupling of electrons at and near the Ti/substrate interface. This enhanced electron-phonon coupling due to electron-interface scattering is shown to have negligible influence on the Kapitza conductances between the Au/Ti and the substrates at longer time scales when the electrons and phonons in the metal have equilibrated. These results suggest that only during highly nonequilibrium conditions between the electrons and phonons (T{sub e} ≫ T{sub p}) does electron-phonon scattering at an interface contribute to thermal boundary conductance.
- OSTI ID:
- 22399269
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Ultrafast and steady-state laser heating effects on electron relaxation and phonon coupling mechanisms in thin gold films
Thermal Conductivity of β-Phase Ga2O3 and (AlxGa1–x)2O3 Heteroepitaxial Thin Films