Correlation between interlayer thickness and diamond/Cu interfacial thermal conductivity at the nanoscale

Zihao Yang; Jinglong Zhang; Yu Ma; Huangshuai Zhang; Zhanqiu Tan; Wenqi Zhang; Hang Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2025.164882

Correlation between interlayer thickness and diamond/Cu interfacial thermal conductivity at the nanoscale

Zihao Yang (Co-first Author), Jinglong Zhang (Co-first Author), Yu Ma^*, Huangshuai Zhang, Zhanqiu Tan^*, Wenqi Zhang^*, Hang Zhang

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

Abstract

To elucidate the correlation between the interlayer thickness and the interfacial thermal conductivity (ITC) of the diamond/Cu interface at the nanoscale, diamond/W(WC)/Cu nanolayered structures with varying interlayer thicknesses were prepared by magnetron sputtering, and their ITC was directly measured by time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) system. The results indicate that an excessively thin interlayer enhances interfacial scattering, thereby shortening the effective mean free path (MFP) of hot carriers, which suppresses thermal transport and limits the overall thermal conductivity. When the interlayer thickness approaches the MFP of hot carriers, the significantly reduced interfacial scattering promotes cross-interface transport, resulting in peak ITC of 101.5 MW/(m²·K) for W (20 nm) and 88 MW/(m²·K) for WC (15 nm), respectively. However, further increasing the interlayer thickness introduces considerable bulk thermal resistance and defect scattering, which decreases the transport efficiency of hot carriers and ultimately reduces the ITC at the diamond/Cu interface. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.

Original language	English
Article number	164882
Number of pages	11
Journal	Applied Surface Science
Volume	718
Online published	12 Oct 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2025.164882
Publication status	Published - 15 Feb 2026

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52201166), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (501QYJC2025101003, 501XYGG2024101003), the National Key R&D Program Project of China (2022YFB3707001, 2022YFB4602401), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 62172028) and CAS-XDC Project (XDC0150303).

Research Keywords

Diamond/copper composites
Interfacial thermal conductivity
Interlayer thickness
Magnetron sputtering
Time-domain thermoreflectance

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title = "Correlation between interlayer thickness and diamond/Cu interfacial thermal conductivity at the nanoscale",

abstract = "To elucidate the correlation between the interlayer thickness and the interfacial thermal conductivity (ITC) of the diamond/Cu interface at the nanoscale, diamond/W(WC)/Cu nanolayered structures with varying interlayer thicknesses were prepared by magnetron sputtering, and their ITC was directly measured by time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) system. The results indicate that an excessively thin interlayer enhances interfacial scattering, thereby shortening the effective mean free path (MFP) of hot carriers, which suppresses thermal transport and limits the overall thermal conductivity. When the interlayer thickness approaches the MFP of hot carriers, the significantly reduced interfacial scattering promotes cross-interface transport, resulting in peak ITC of 101.5 MW/(m2·K) for W (20 nm) and 88 MW/(m2·K) for WC (15 nm), respectively. However, further increasing the interlayer thickness introduces considerable bulk thermal resistance and defect scattering, which decreases the transport efficiency of hot carriers and ultimately reduces the ITC at the diamond/Cu interface. {\textcopyright} 2025 Elsevier B.V.",

keywords = "Diamond/copper composites, Interfacial thermal conductivity, Interlayer thickness, Magnetron sputtering, Time-domain thermoreflectance",

author = "Zihao Yang and Jinglong Zhang and Yu Ma and Huangshuai Zhang and Zhanqiu Tan and Wenqi Zhang and Hang Zhang",

year = "2026",

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doi = "10.1016/j.apsusc.2025.164882",

language = "English",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Correlation between interlayer thickness and diamond/Cu interfacial thermal conductivity at the nanoscale

AU - Yang, Zihao

AU - Zhang, Jinglong

AU - Ma, Yu

AU - Zhang, Huangshuai

AU - Tan, Zhanqiu

AU - Zhang, Wenqi

AU - Zhang, Hang

PY - 2026/2/15

Y1 - 2026/2/15

N2 - To elucidate the correlation between the interlayer thickness and the interfacial thermal conductivity (ITC) of the diamond/Cu interface at the nanoscale, diamond/W(WC)/Cu nanolayered structures with varying interlayer thicknesses were prepared by magnetron sputtering, and their ITC was directly measured by time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) system. The results indicate that an excessively thin interlayer enhances interfacial scattering, thereby shortening the effective mean free path (MFP) of hot carriers, which suppresses thermal transport and limits the overall thermal conductivity. When the interlayer thickness approaches the MFP of hot carriers, the significantly reduced interfacial scattering promotes cross-interface transport, resulting in peak ITC of 101.5 MW/(m2·K) for W (20 nm) and 88 MW/(m2·K) for WC (15 nm), respectively. However, further increasing the interlayer thickness introduces considerable bulk thermal resistance and defect scattering, which decreases the transport efficiency of hot carriers and ultimately reduces the ITC at the diamond/Cu interface. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.

AB - To elucidate the correlation between the interlayer thickness and the interfacial thermal conductivity (ITC) of the diamond/Cu interface at the nanoscale, diamond/W(WC)/Cu nanolayered structures with varying interlayer thicknesses were prepared by magnetron sputtering, and their ITC was directly measured by time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) system. The results indicate that an excessively thin interlayer enhances interfacial scattering, thereby shortening the effective mean free path (MFP) of hot carriers, which suppresses thermal transport and limits the overall thermal conductivity. When the interlayer thickness approaches the MFP of hot carriers, the significantly reduced interfacial scattering promotes cross-interface transport, resulting in peak ITC of 101.5 MW/(m2·K) for W (20 nm) and 88 MW/(m2·K) for WC (15 nm), respectively. However, further increasing the interlayer thickness introduces considerable bulk thermal resistance and defect scattering, which decreases the transport efficiency of hot carriers and ultimately reduces the ITC at the diamond/Cu interface. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.

KW - Diamond/copper composites

KW - Interfacial thermal conductivity

KW - Interlayer thickness

KW - Magnetron sputtering

KW - Time-domain thermoreflectance

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U2 - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2025.164882

DO - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2025.164882

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 0169-4332

VL - 718

JO - Applied Surface Science

JF - Applied Surface Science

M1 - 164882

ER -

Correlation between interlayer thickness and diamond/Cu interfacial thermal conductivity at the nanoscale

Abstract

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