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Thermometry of Silicon Nanoparticles

Matthew Mecklenburg, Brian Zutter, and B. C. Regan
Phys. Rev. Applied 9, 014005 – Published 9 January 2018
Physics logo See Synopsis: Plasmon Thermometers for Silicon
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Abstract

Current thermometry techniques lack the spatial resolution required to see the temperature gradients in typical, highly scaled modern transistors. As a step toward addressing this problem, we measure the temperature dependence of the volume plasmon energy in silicon nanoparticles from room temperature to 1250°C, using a chip-style heating sample holder in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) equipped with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). The plasmon energy changes as expected for an electron gas subject to the thermal expansion of silicon. Reversing this reasoning, we find that measurements of the plasmon energy provide an independent measure of the nanoparticle temperature consistent with that of the heater chip’s macroscopic, dual-function heater-and-thermometer to within the 5% accuracy of the thermometer’s calibration. Thus, silicon has the potential to provide its own high-spatial-resolution thermometric readout signal via measurements of its volume plasmon energy. Furthermore, nanoparticles can, in general, serve as convenient nanothermometers for in situ electron-microscopy experiments.

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  • Received 16 June 2017
  • Revised 17 November 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.014005

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Synopsis

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Plasmon Thermometers for Silicon

Published 9 January 2018

Electron oscillations in silicon may be used to map, with nanometer resolution, the temperatures across a silicon device.

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Authors & Affiliations

Matthew Mecklenburg*

  • Center for Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA

Brian Zutter and B. C. Regan

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
  • California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA

  • *matthew.mecklenburg@usc.edu
  • regan@physics.ucla.edu

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Vol. 9, Iss. 1 — January 2018

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