Measurement of the Heat Capacity of Copper Thin Films Using a Micropulse Calorimeter

Abstract

This paper presents a micropulse calorimeter for heat capacity measurement of thin films. Optimization of the structure and data processing methods of the microcalorimeter improved the thermal isolation and temperature uniformity and reduced the heat capacity measurement errors. Heat capacities of copper thin films with thicknesses from 20 nm to 340 nm are measured in the temperature range from 300 K to 420 K in vacuum of 1 mPa. The specific heat of the 340 nm Cu film is close to the literature data of bulk Cu. For the thinner films, the data shows that the specific heat increases with the decreasing of film thickness (or the average crystalline size).