Analyzing the Boundary Thermal Resistance of Epitaxially Grown Fe2VAl/W Layers by Picosecond Time-Domain Thermoreflectance.

To gain deep insight into the mechanism of phonon scattering at grain boundaries, we investigated the boundary thermal resistance by using picosecond pulsed-laser time-domain thermoreflectance for epitaxially grown W/Fe₂VAl/W films. By using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering, we prepared a series of the three-layer films whose Fe₂VAl thickness ranged from 1 nm to 37 nm. The fine oscillation of reflectivity associated with the top W layer clearly appeared in synchrotron x-ray reflectivity measurements, indicating a less obvious mixture of elements at the boundary. The areal heat diffusion time, obtained from the time-domain thermoreflectance signal in the rear-heating front-detection configuration, reduced rapidly in samples whose Fe₂VAl layer was thinner than 15 nm. The ∼ 10% mismatch in lattice constant between Fe₂VAl and W naturally produced the randomly distributed lattice stress near the boundary, causing an effective increase of boundary thermal resistance in the thick samples, but the stress became homogeneous in the thinner layers, which reduced the scattering probability of phonons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]