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Updated: Apr 25, 2026

Characterization of Thermal Transport in One-dimensional Solid Materials
Published on: January 26, 2014
Length-dependent thermal transport along molecular chains
T Meier1, F Menges2, P Nirmalraj3
1IBM Research-Zurich, Säumerstrasse 4, CH-8803 Rüschlikon, Switzerland and Institute of Microstructure Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Hermann-von-Helmholtz Platz 1, D-76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
Abstract:
We present heat-transport measurements conducted with a vacuum-operated scanning thermal microscope to study the thermal conductance of monolayers of nine different alkane thiols self-assembled on Au(111) surfaces as a function of their length (2 to 18 methylene units). The molecular thermal conductance is probed in a confined area with a diameter below 10 nm in the contact between a silicon tip and the self-assembled monolayer. This yields a pWK(-1) sensitivity per molecule at a tip temperature of 200-300 °C versus the gold at room temperature. We found a conductance variance of up to a factor of 3 as a function of alkane chain length, with maximum conductance for a chain length of four carbon atoms.
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