A pre-time-zero spatiotemporal microscopy technique for the ultrasensitive determination of the thermal diffusivity of thin films

Sebin Varghese, Jake Dudley Mehew, Alexander Block, David Saleta Reig, Paweł Woźniak, Roberta Farris, Zeila Zanolli, Pablo Ordejón, Matthieu J. Verstraete, Niek F. Van Hulst, Klaas Jan Tielrooij*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Diffusion is one of the most ubiquitous transport phenomena in nature. Experimentally, it can be tracked by following point spreading in space and time. Here, we introduce a spatiotemporal pump-probe microscopy technique that exploits the residual spatial temperature profile obtained through the transient reflectivity when probe pulses arrive before pump pulses. This corresponds to an effective pump-probe time delay of 13 ns, determined by the repetition rate of our laser system (76 MHz). This pre-time-zero technique enables probing the diffusion of long-lived excitations created by previous pump pulses with nanometer accuracy and is particularly powerful for following in-plane heat diffusion in thin films. The particular advantage of this technique is that it enables quantifying thermal transport without requiring any material input parameters or strong heating. We demonstrate the direct determination of the thermal diffusivities of films with a thickness of around 15 nm, consisting of the layered materials MoSe2 (0.18 cm2/s), WSe2 (0.20 cm2/s), MoS2 (0.35 cm2/s), and WS2 (0.59 cm2/s). This technique paves the way for observing nanoscale thermal transport phenomena and tracking diffusion of a broad range of species.

Original languageEnglish
Article number034903
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalReview of Scientific Instruments
Volume94
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
ICN2 was supported by the Severo Ochoa program from Spanish MINECO Grant No. SEV-2017-0706. S.V. and D.S.R. acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy through FPI-SO2018 and FPI-SO2019, respectively. K.-J.T. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 804349 (ERC StG CUHL), RYC fellowship No. RYC-2017-22330 and IAE Project No. PID2019-111673GB-I00. ICFO was supported by the Severo Ochoa program for Centers of Excellence in R&D (CEX2019-000910-S), Fundació Privada Cellex, Fundació Privada Mir-Puig, and the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA program. P.W. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 754510 (PROBIST). N.F.v.H. acknowledges funding by the European Commission (ERC AdG 670949-LightNet), the Spanish Plan Nacional (PGC2018-096875-BI00), and the Catalan AGAUR (2017SGR1369). M.J.V. acknowledges support from Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles and ULiège (ARC project DREAMS G.A. 21/25-11). Z.Z. acknowledges the research program “Materials for the Quantum Age” (QuMAt) for financial support. This program (Registration No. 024.005.006) is part of the Gravitation program financed by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). We acknowledge PRACE computing time on MareNostrum4 at Barcelona Supercomputing Center (OptoSpin id. 2020225411).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Author(s).

Funding

ICN2 was supported by the Severo Ochoa program from Spanish MINECO Grant No. SEV-2017-0706. S.V. and D.S.R. acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy through FPI-SO2018 and FPI-SO2019, respectively. K.-J.T. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 804349 (ERC StG CUHL), RYC fellowship No. RYC-2017-22330 and IAE Project No. PID2019-111673GB-I00. ICFO was supported by the Severo Ochoa program for Centers of Excellence in R&D (CEX2019-000910-S), Fundació Privada Cellex, Fundació Privada Mir-Puig, and the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA program. P.W. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 754510 (PROBIST). N.F.v.H. acknowledges funding by the European Commission (ERC AdG 670949-LightNet), the Spanish Plan Nacional (PGC2018-096875-BI00), and the Catalan AGAUR (2017SGR1369). M.J.V. acknowledges support from Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles and ULiège (ARC project DREAMS G.A. 21/25-11). Z.Z. acknowledges the research program “Materials for the Quantum Age” (QuMAt) for financial support. This program (Registration No. 024.005.006) is part of the Gravitation program financed by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). We acknowledge PRACE computing time on MareNostrum4 at Barcelona Supercomputing Center (OptoSpin id. 2020225411).

FundersFunder number
Severo Ochoa program from Spanish MINECO
Spanish Ministry of Economy
European Union
RYC fellowship
IAE Project
Severo Ochoa program for Centers of Excellence in RD
Fundacio Privada Cellex, Fundacio Privada MirPuig
Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA programSEV-2017-0706
European Commission (ERC)FPI-SO2018, FPI-SO2019
Spanish Plan Nacional804349, CEX2019-000910-S
Catalan AGAUR754510
Federation Wallonie Bruxelles and ULiegeRYC-2017-22330
Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW)PID2019-111673GB-I00
Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Not addedAdG 670949-LightNet
Not addedPGC2018-096875-BI00
Not added2017SGR1369
Not addedG.A. 21/25-11
Not added024.005.006
Not added2020225411

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