ABSTRACT
Investigations of the thermal conductivity of thin films are important for determination of their
thermoelectric efficiencies and for understanding their structures and conduction mechanisms.
Thermal conductivity and diffusivity are crucial parameters for the design of thermoelectric
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), thermal microsensors, and actuators. Reliable system
simulation and design optimization of such devices are based on the accurate determination of
thermophysical properties of the applied films. It is, therefore, highly desirable to acquire such data.
Usually, thermal properties of these films differ considerably from the bulk values, since the parasitic
surface effects are much stronger due to the smaller dimensions and aspect ratios. Particular thin-film
structures like multiquantumwells (MQW) are designed in order to utilize these dimensional effects for a
reduction of the thermal conductivity.
