Heat Transfer Across Metal-Dielectric Interfaces During Ultrafast-Laser Heating

Heat transfer across a metal-dielectric interface involves coupled transport of electrons and phonons in metal and phonons in dielectric, which can be accomplished by coupling between phonons in metal and dielectric or direct coupling between electrons in metal and phonons in dielectric. Direct electron-phonon coupling across the metal-dielectric interface is neglected in some studies [1, 2] but considered in some others [3–5]. We investigate heat transfer across metal-dielectric interfaces during ultrafast-laser heating by employing transient thermo-reflectance (TTR) measurements on Au-Si samples. With ultrafast-laser heating that creates strong thermal non-equilibrium between electrons and phonons in metal, it is possible to isolate the effect of direct electron-phonon coupling across the interface. Simulation results based on the two-temperature model (TTM) are compared with the measurement results. The comparison shows a strong direct coupling between electrons in metal and phonons in dielectric.