Picosecond dynamics of thermal and acoustic transport in metal films

An optical transient reflectance technique has been developed to characterize both the thermal and the elastic properties of thin-film materials. The use of picosecond-duration laser pulses permits the study of metal films of the order of 100 nm thick. We demonstrate the measurement of thermal diffusivity and acoustic velocity, in addition to observations of the thermal impedance of a single metal-metal interface.Paper presented at the First Workshop on Subsecond Thermophysics, June 20–21, 1988, Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S.A.