UC Irvine

With the advancement of synthetic nanostructures, more attention has been directed toward probing low-dimensional transport phenomena. Recently, multiple techniques have been established for thermal transport measurements at the nanoscale domain. Sensitivity analysis however remains an experimental challenge for both high and low conductance materials. Achieving precise thermometry remains an obstacle due to influence of thermal contact resistance particularly at cryogenic temperatures where boundary scattering is more dominant. The contribution of radiation heat exchange is also a concern which is more critical at higher temperatures exceeding 800 K. Here we report the limitations of thermal conductance measurements in silicon nanowires and other common nanostructures by evaluating the thermal conductance limit according to the geometrical characteristics and temperature. This study will illustrate experimental results of thermal conductivity measurements using a suspended micro-device with built-in resistive thermometers and report the measurement limitations computationally for probing thermal transport in 1-D and 2-D nanostructures