2005/09/14 by Stéphane Lefèvre, Sébastian Volz, Sebastian Volz +2 · 2 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Adhesion, Friction, and Surface Interactions #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #Thermal properties of materials #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2005.07.010
published as International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 49, 1-2 (2006) 251-258
openalex publication_date 2005/09/14 · arxiv created 2008/02/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Hot tips are used either for characterizing nanostructures by using scanning thermal microscopes or for local heating to assist data writing. The tip-sample thermal interaction involves conduction at solid-solid contact as well as conduction through the ambient gas and through the water meniscus. We analyze those three heat transfer modes with experimental data and modeling. We conclude that the three modes contribute in a similar manner to the thermal contact conductance but they have distinct contact radii ranging from 30 nm to 1 micron. We also show that any scanning thermal microscope has a 1-3 microns resolution when used in ambient air.