Thermal Diffusivity Measurement of Isotopically Enriched 28-Si Single Crystal by Dynamic Grating Radiometry

In the past decade it has been suggested that the isotopic enrichment of 28-silicon enhances its thermal properties. Thus, 28-silicon is suitable as a heat sink in large-scale integrated circuits. Although some studies have focused on the measurement of isotopically enriched silicon's thermal properties, accurate experimental data are not sufficient because of this material's high conductivity and large heat capacity which make measurement difficult. However, the dynamic grating radiometry (DGR) method has been successfully developed to measure the thermal diffusivity of 28-silicon. In the DGR method, the sample is heated by interference of two pulsed laser beams, and the temperature decay is monitored by an infrared detector. By analyzing the temperature changes of the peaks and valleys of the thermal grating, the thermal diffusivities parallel and perpendicular to the sample surface are obtained simultaneously. In this paper, the optimum conditions of the experimental setup for measuring isotopically enriched silicon are discussed. The comparison of thermal diffusivities between 28-silicon and natural silicon (with a thickness of about 100 μm) is presented, and the applicability of DGR to isotope engineering is reported.