Introduction

This book aims to serve as a practical guide for novices to design and conduct measurements of thermal properties at the nanoscale using electrothermal techniques. An outgrowth of the authors’ tutorials for new graduate students in their own labs, it includes practical details on measurement design and selection, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, and pitfalls and verifications.

The information is particularly helpful for someone setting up their own experiment for the first time. The book emphasizes the integration of thermal analysis with practical experimental considerations, in order to design an experiment for best sensitivity and to configure the laboratory instruments accordingly.

Scope and Focus

The focus is on the measurements of thermal conductivity, though thermal diffusivity and thermal boundary resistance (thermal contact resistance) are also briefly covered, and many of the principles can be generalized to other challenging thermal measurements.

Prerequisites

The reader is only expected to have the basic familiarity with electrical instruments typical of a university graduate in science or engineering, and an acquaintance with the elementary laws of heat transfer by conduction, convection, and radiation.