Nanoscale Thermal Fluctuation Spectroscopy

The utilization of thermal fluctuations or Johnson/Nyquist noise as a spectroscopic method to determine transport properties in conductors or semiconductors is developed in this paper. The autocorrelation function is obtained from power spectral density measurements thus enabling electronic transport property calculation through the Green-Kubo formalism. This experimental approach is distinct from traditional numerical methods such as molecular dynamics simulations, which have been used to extract the autocorrelation function and directly related physics only. This work reports multi-transport property measurements consisting of the electronic relaxation time, resistivity, mobility, diffusion coefficient, electronic contribution to thermal conductivity and Lorenz number from experimental data. Double validation of the experiment was accomplished through the use of a standard reference material and a standard measurement method, i.e. four-probe collinear resistivity technique. The advantages to this new experimental technique include the elimination of any required thermal or potential gradients, multi-transport property measurements within one experiment, very low error and the ability to apply controlled boundary conditions while gathering data. This research has experimentally assessed the gas pressure and flow effects of helium and argon on 30 nm Au and Cu thin films. The results show a reduction in Au and Cu electronic thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity when subjected to helium and argon pressure and flow. The perturbed electronic transport coefficients, attributed to increased electron scattering at the surface, were so dominant that further data was collected through straight-forward resistance measurements. The resistance data confirmed the thermal noise measurements thus lending considerable evidence to the presence of thin film surface scattering due to elastic and inelastic gas particle scattering effects with the electron ensemble.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Year

2009

Author dc:creator

• Garrity, Patrick Louis

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stokes, Kevin
• Malkinski, Leszek
• Ioup, Juliette

• Thermal fluctuations
• Nyquist noise
• Autocorrelation function
• Green-Kubo theory Gas particle scattering
• Electronic thermal conductivity
• Electrical resistivity

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/912

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-1893