The Role of Thermal Transport in Nanotechnology Applications

Presented on March 24, 2015 at 12:00 p.m. in the Pettit Microelectronics Building Conference Room 102 A&B.Shannon Yee is an assistant professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. His research focuses on translating new fundamental scientific discoveries into applied energy conversion technologies.Runtime: 58:53 minutesAs devices are miniaturized, thermal transport limits are more routinely halting progress. Microchip heat fluxes are approaching that of the surface of the sun. Needless to say, our ability to manage those heat fluxes at the nanoscale is limited by our scientific understanding of thermal transport. Beyond microchips, thermal transport issues also limit development in applications such as batteries, LEDs, PVs, and thermoelectrics. In this talk, I will discuss limits of our fundamental understanding of nanoscale thermal transport and the hallmark questions that need to be answered. I will outline approaches to answers these questions with examples from research in my lab and others. I will also focus on experimental techniques that can be used to investigate the science of thermal transport in a plethora of emerging nanomaterials. The talk will specifically focus on examples of amorphous materials, thermal and thermoelectric transport in organic materials, and thermal transport in multilayers