Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 32, Feburary 1998, pp.

S253S255

The Measuring of Thermal Properties of Thin Dielectric Films with the Use
of Periodical Heating Probe Method
S. T. Davitadze, S. N. Kravchun, B. A. Strukov
Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119899 Moscow, Russia

B. M. Goltzman, V. V. Lemanov, S. G. Shulman

Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia
The theory of the method for a three layer system (probe-film-semiinfinitive substrate) that
authors developed, has revealed that it is possible to determine the heat capacitance and thermal
conductivity of thin dielectric films on a massive substrate. The results of measurements of the
thermal conductivity of 2 m polycrystalline SrTiO3 film on a sapphire substrate are presented.

I. INTRODUCTION
Heat properties of thin dielectric films are of particular interest in connection with the problem of phase
transition in quasi two-dimensional ferroelectric systems.
We have shown that it is possible to determine the heat
capacitance and thermal conductivity of such films on
a massive substrate using the periodical heating probe
method, the general principles of which have been described in the literature [1]. The periodical heating probe
(wire or strip) method has been used mainly for measuring the thermal properties of gases and organic liquids.
In the last years the investigators have begun to employ it extensively for studying the thermal properties of
crystals [24] and thin dielectric films [5] and also of supercooled liquids near the glass transitions as a method
of specific heat spectroscopy [6]. The method consists

in measuring temperature oscillations of a thin metal

probe heated by an alternating current of frequency .
The probe temperature oscillations depend on the thermal properties of the medium with which the probe is in
contact.

II. THE THEORY OF THE METHOD

The theory of the method used to measure the thermal
properties of a dielectric film is based on a thermal problem in which a flat probe of a negligibly small thickness
is placed on to a film of thickness h1 deposited on to a
substrate of thickness h2 (Fig. 1). In the approximation
of a semiinfinite substrate (h2 ) the complex amplitude 1 of probe temperature oscillations is determined
by the following relation [7]:

Table 1. Estimated values of the minimum thickness hmin

of films for which measurement of the set of thermal properties (1 , a1 , Cp1 1 , b1 ) by the periodic heating of a planar
probe is possible.
Substance
Polyamide
Fused quartz
Strontium titanate
Fig. 1. The relative placement of the film (1), the substrate
Sapphire
-S253(2), and the planar probe (3).

a (m2 /s)

nmin (m)

0.17106
0.84106
4.4106
15 106

2
5
10
20

-S254-

Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 32, Feburary 1998

1
g1 cos(z1 ) + if1 sin(z1 )
= X0 (1 + i)
,
2
f1 cos(z1 ) g1 sin(z1 ) + i(f1 cos(z1 ) + g1 sin(z1 ))

where

2 = P0 /(Sb2 (1 + i) ) ; the complex amplitude of the

temperature oscillations of a probe placed on the surface
of an infinitely thick substrate (h1 = 0, h2 ),
P0 ; the amplitude of power evolved on a strip portion
of length L,
X0 =pb2 /b1 ; the thermal contrast factor,
bi = i Cpi i ; the thermal activity (for the film i = 1,
for the p
substrate i = 2),
zi = hi /ai ,
ai ; the thermal diffusivity,
i ; the thermal conductivity,
Cpi ; the heat capacity,
; the density,
S = 2Ll ; the area of the probe strip,
g1 = X0 sinh(z1 ) + cosh(z1 ),
f1 = X0 cosh(z1 ) + sinh(z1 ).
In the approximation z1  1, z2 (a thermally
thin film and a semiinfinite substrate) the function 1 /2
takes on the form
1
= 1 + (1 + i)(X0 1/X0 )z1
2

Fig. 2. Dependence of a real part of 1 /2 on dimensionless thickness z1 of a film for various values of thermal
contrast factor X0 = b2 /b1 .

= 1 + (1 + i)(

(1)

Cp1 1
b2

)h1 .
1
b2

(2)

It is seen from the last equation that in the region

z1  1 (thin film, low frequency) it is impossible to determine the set of thermal properties, the problem of
calculating the set of thermal properties of the film becomes incorrect.
1) If b2  b1 we can measure the heat capacity of the
film, i.e. , if 1/X0  X0 then

1 /2 = 1(1+i)z1 /X0 = 1(1+i)Cp1 1 h1 /b2 .(3)

2) If b1  b2, i.e. X0  1/X0 ,

1 /2 = 1 + (1 + i)z1 X0 = 1 + (1 + i)h1 b2 /1 ,(4)

and may be used to measure the thermal conductivity
of a film with a thickness smaller than that indicated
in Table 1. For example, for a film of
fused quartz on
sapphire (b2 /b1 8) the condition h1 b2 /1 = 0.1 at
a frequency of 5000 Hz is fulfilled at h1 = 50 nm.
Using reference data for the thermal diffusivity of substances of various classes it is easy to obtainpthe values
of the minimal thickness hmin (hmin 1.4 a1 /max ,
where max is the maximum frequency for the setup)
of films, whose thermal properties can be measured by
means the two-frequency variant of the periodical heating method. The values of hmin given in Table 1 characterize the possibility of determining the set of the thermal
properties of the film. However, one of the thermal parameters can be determined for h1 < hmin on the basis
of the asymptotic relation.

Fig. 3. p
Experimental data for the quantity bef f /b2 as a
function of /2 for a leucosapphire sample (h2 = 0.6 mm)
without a film () and with an SrTiO3 film (h1 = 2 m, h2 =
0.4 mm) (). The solid curves are the results of calculations.

The Measuring of Thermal Properties of Thin Dielectric Films with the Use of S. T. Davitadze et al

III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The samples studied by us are three-layer systems consisting of a probe on to an SrTiO3 film of thickness
h1 = 2 m sputtered on to the substrate. The substrates used are single crystals of leucosapphire of thickness h2 = 0.4 2 mm. The SrTiO3 films were prepared
by the high-frequency magnetron sputtering technique
with subsequent high-temperature annealing; their crystal structure was sufficiently perfect [8].
Fig. 3 presents the experimental data obtained for
leucosapphire sample with and without an SrTiO3 film.
The results are given in the form of plot of ratio bef f /b2
versus, where bef f is the value of thermal activity
obtained in case where the relation 2 = P0 /(Sb2 (1 + i)
for the complex amplitude of temperature oscillations,
which corresponds to the position of the probe on a semiinfinite substrate, is used in the treatment of experimental data and in those cases where the probe is on a sample with a film or the finiteness of the substrate thickness
manifests itself. The deviation of the ratio bef f /b2 from
unity is an indication of the effect of the finiteness of the
thickness of substrate and SrTiO3 film on the amplitude
of probe temperature oscillations. The effect of the film
manifests itself in a decrease of bef f since the thermal
activity of the SrTiO3 film is lower thanp
that of leucosapphire. In a frequency region where a2 /2 h2 ,
i.e., the depth penetration of a temperature wave into
the sample is comparable to the sample thickness, there
is observed a maximum of bef f , this being due to the
specificity of the propagation of a temperature
wave in
p
a sample of finite size. At frequencies of /2 > 80
there is observed a decrease of bef f (for both samples);
the elucidation of the nature of this phenomenon requires
additional investigations.
In order to determine the thermal properties of a
film in a general case, use has to be made of relation,
which describes the dependence of the ratio 1 /2 on
the parameters z1 and z2 . However, since in our experiments z1 < 0.2 (for /2 5000 Hz), z2 > 3 (for
/2 25 Hz) and X0 10, the nonlinearity of the
dependence on z1 does not practically manifest itself
(see Fig. 2), which is why we may limit ourselves to
relation of Eq. (2). This relation does not enable one
to determine the heat capacity Cp1 1 and the thermal
conductivity 1 of the film separately, but if one of the
two terms on the right-hand side of last relation is much
larger than the other, we can determine the thermal parameter of the film contained in this term. The smaller
term is taken into account as a correction, in which use
is made of the known value of the thermal parameter

-S255-

contained in it. For the SrTiO3 film on the leucosapphire substrate b2 /1 10Cp1 1 /b2 , which means that
we can determine the thermal conductivity of the film
1 by using the data reported by Strukov it et al. [9]:
Cp1 /1 = 2.73 106 J/(m3 K). As a result, we obtain
for the thermal conductivity of SrTiO3 film the value of
1 = 10 W/(mK) (at a temperate T 293 K), which
is consistent with the data reported in the literature:
12 W/(mK) [10] and 13 W/(mK) [11] for bulk SrTiO3 .

IV. SUMMARY
We have considered the theory of the periodical heating probe method for an infinitely wide probe deposited
on a film on a substrate. It shown that it is possible to
determine the thermal properties of thin films. We have
determined experimentally the thermal conductivity of
an SrTiO3 film of thickness 2 m at 293 K.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors express their gratitude to S. A. Taraskin
for assistance in carrying out experiments. This work
was supported by the program Russian Universities
and by the Russian Fund of Fundamental Research
(grant 96 02 17723a).
REFERENCES
[1] L. P. Philippov, S. N. Nefedov and S. N. Kravchun, Int.
J. Thermophys. 1, 141 (1980).
[2] S. Lee and S. Kwun, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 65, 966 (1994).
[3] I. K. Moon, Y. H. Jeong and S. I. Kwun, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 67, 29 (1996).
[4] D. G. Cahill, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 61, 802 (1990).
[5] S. -M. Lee and D. G. Cahill, J. Appl. Phys. 81, 2590
(1997).
[6] N. O. Birge and S. R. Nagel, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 58, 1464
(1987).
[7] S. N. Kravchun, S. T. Davitadze, N. S. Mizina and B. A.
Strukov, Phys. Solid State 39, 675 (1997).
[8] B. M. Goltsman, N. V. Zaitseva, Yu. L. Kretser, V. V.
Lemanov and T. A. Shaplyghina, Fiz. Tverdogo Tela 37,
3723 (1995).
[9] B. A. Strukov, T. L. Skomorokhova and M. V.
Rozhdestvenskaya, Kristalogra. 17, 1256 (1972).
[10] G. B. Child, L. Y. Erics and R. W. Powell, NBS (US)
Monogr. 131 (1973).
[11] E. F. Steigmeier, Phys. Rev. 168, 523 (1968).