Thermal and Thermoelectric Measurements of Low Dimensional Nanostructures

Low dimensional materials have unique thermal and thermoelectric properties that can be very different from their bulk counterparts. In a previous work, we and our collaborators have developed a microdevice for measuring thermal and thermoelectric properties of multiwall carbon nanotubes. Here, we used an improved design of the device for measuring single wall carbon nanotubes, Ge nanowires, and SnO2 nanobelts. These nanostructures are trapped between two adjacent symmetric silicon nitride membranes of the micro device using either a wet deposition method or in-situ chemical vapor deposition. The measurements provide the critically needed data of the unique thermophysical properties of these nanomaterials.