title: Nanoscale thermometry using point contact thermocouples.
abstract: Probing temperature fields with nanometer resolution is critical to understanding nanoscale thermal transport as well as dissipation in nanoscale devices. Here, we demonstrate an atomic force microscope (AFM)-based technique capable of mapping temperature fields in metallic films with approximately 10 mK temperature resolution and <100 nm spatial resolution. A platinum-coated AFM cantilever placed in soft mechanical contact with a metallic (gold) surface is used to sequentially create point contact thermocouples on a grid. The local temperature at each point contact is obtained by measuring the thermoelectric voltage of the platinum-gold point contact and relating it to the local temperature. These results demonstrate a direct measurement of the temperature field of a metallic surface without using specially fabricated scanning temperature-probes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Seid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sadat
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Yi Jie
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Chua
authors.forename: Pramod
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reddy