Thermoreflectance system by pulsed light heating : NanoTR/PicoTR

Thermoreflectance apparatus “NanoTR” and thermoreflectance apparatus “PicoTR”, allows for absolute measurements of the thermal diffusivity of thin films in a thickness range of several 10 μm down into the nanometer range.

NanoTR’s state-of-the-art signal processing technology allows high speed measurements. With this thermoreflectance apparatus, a laser pulse of 1 ns pulse width is periodically (20 μs) irradiated to the sample. The resulting temperature response is applied to a CW laser (probe laser).

Excellent s/n ratio can be attained by high speed integration of repetitive signals. It can be easily switched between the RF and FF configurations though the software for a wide variety of samples.  NanoTR is in accordance with JIS R 1689, JIS R 1690, and SI traceable by the thin film standard of heat diffusion time (RM1301-a), supplied from AIST.

With picosecond thermoreflectance analyzer PicoTR, laser pulses (pump laser) of 0.5 ps pulse width are applied to the sample with the time period of 50 ns. The temperature response is detected with the probe laser.  PicoTR allows for an easy switching between the RF and FF mode by the user.  PicoTR is in accordance with JIS R 1689, JIS R 1690.

NanoTR and PicoTR allow for an absolute measurement of the thermal diffusivity in the case of an opaque sample and a transparent substrate. For all other cases such as opaque substrate and transparent thin film, reference materials are available made of Molybdenum (CRM 5808-a, for PicoTR) and TiN (RM 1301-a, for NanoTR). It is supplied by AIST, the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.