Application of Micro-thermal Analysis for Metal, Oxide, and Non-oxide Thin Film Materials

In this paper, we present the use of the micro‐thermal analyzer (TA Instruments model μTA‐2990) to detect lithographically‐defined surface and sub‐surface metal and dielectric features in silica and chalcogenide glass films. The imaging resolution of the technique was determined to be ±1 μm laterally for surface features, and up to 1μm for features located below the surface. We demonstrate that this instrument is also an effective technique for the detection of Au, Ag, and Cu nanoparticles within sol‐gel derived silica films. Lastly, we show that the micro‐thermal analyzer can also be used to measure thermal properties of bulk and film glassy materials, including thermal conductivity and probe penetration temperature.