Enhancement of Thermal Conductance at Metal-Dielectric Interfaces Using Subnanometer Metal Adhesion Layers

Abstract

We show that the use of subnanometer adhesion layers significantly enhances the thermal interface conductance at metal-dielectric interfaces. A metal-dielectric interface between Au and sapphire (Al2O3) is considered using Cu (low optical loss) and Cr (high optical loss) as adhesion layers. To enable high throughput measurements, each adhesion layer is deposited as a wedge such that a continuous range of thicknesses could be sampled. Our measurements of thermal interface conductance at the metal-Al2O3 interface made using frequency-domain thermoreflectance show that a 1-nm-thick adhesion layer of Cu or Cr is sufficient to enhance the thermal interface conductance by more than a factor of 2 or 4, respectively, relative to the pure Au/Al2O3 interface. The enhancement agrees with the diffuse-mismatch-model-based predictions of accumulated thermal conductance versus adhesion-layer thickness assuming that it contributes phonons with wavelengths less than its thickness, while those with longer wavelengths transmit directly from the Au.