Scanning thermal microscopy of carbon nanotubes

This paper reports the use of scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) for studying heat dissipation and phonon transport in nanoelectronic circuits consisting of carbon nanotubes (CNs). Thermally designed and batch fabricated SThM probes were used to resolve the phonon temperature distribution in the CN circuits with a spatial resolution of 50 nm. Heat dissipation at poor metal-CN contacts could be readily found by the thermal imaging technique. Important questions regarding energy transport in nanoelectronic circuits, such as where is heat dissipated, whether the electrons and phonons are in equilibrium, how phonons are transported, and what are the effects of mechanical deformation on the transport and dissipation properties, are addressed in this work.