University of Virginia Patent Foundation

Sandia Corporation

North Carolina State University

National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC

Patrick Edward Hopkins

John T Gaskins

Brian M Foley

Jon Ihlefeld

Jesse S Jur

Mark Losego

Roy H Olsson

Ihab Fathy El-Kady

Thomas Edwin Beechem, Iii

Khalid Mikhiel Hattar

Charles M Reinke

Bongsang Kim

Luke Yates

David H Olson

Edward S Piekos

Douglas L Medlin

Jeffrey L Braun

An apparatus related method for measuring a property of a target material. The system may include a pump device that generates a pump beam. A modulation device may receive the pump beam and generate a modulated pump beam by modulating an intensity amplitude of the pump beam, which may be directed to the target material. A probe device may generate a probe beam, which is directed to the target material. A part of the probe beam may be reflected off of the target material, and has similar frequency characteristic as the modulated pump beam. A detection device may detect the reflected probe beam and produce a signal. An analyzing device may receive the signal and calculate the target material property by comparing the modulated frequency characteristics of the signal to those of the pump beam. At least one of the pump and the probe beams may be infrared light.

Fiber-optic based material property measurement system and related methods

A method of measuring thermal conductivity of a material includes focusing a modulated pump laser beam having a modulation frequency that induces a cyclical steady-state temperature rise at a spot of a material, focusing a CW probe laser beam at the spot and generating a reflected probe beam reflected from the spot on the material, the reflected probe beam having a magnitude of a reflectance signal as a function of the temperature of the material and being periodic corresponding to the cyclical temperature rise, measuring the magnitude of the reflectance signals of the reflected probe beam, and determining the thermal conductivity by fitting the power of the pump beam and the measured magnitude of the reflectance signal to a thermal model which is a function of a thermal conductivity of the material relating the radial heat flux to the temperature rise.

Steady-state thermo-reflectance method and system to measure thermal conductivity

Fiber-optic based thermal reflectance material property measurement system and related methods

The present disclosure relates to flexible thermoelectric devices. In some embodiments, such devices can comprise a flexible substrate with a first conductive component and a second, different conductive component deposited thereon so as to form a plurality of electrical junctions. The flexible substrate can be a fabric, and the conductive component can be deposited by methods such as stitching of conductive yarns or deposition of conductive inks. The present disclosure further relates to methods of preparing flexible thermoelectric devices and methods of utilizing flexible thermoelectric devices for producing electrical current from waste heat.

Flexible thermoelectric devices, methods of preparation thereof, and methods of recovering waste heat therewith

Ion implantation can be used to define a thermal dissipation path that allows for better thermal isolation between devices in close proximity on a microelectronics chip, thus providing a means for higher device density combined with better performance.

Ion-implanted thermal barrier

A method to control thermal energy transport uses mobile coherent interfaces in nanoscale ferroelectric films to scatter phonons. The thermal conductivity can be actively tuned, simply by applying an electrical potential across the ferroelectric material and thereby altering the density of these coherent boundaries to directly impact thermal transport at room temperature and above. The invention eliminates the necessity of using moving components or poor efficiency methods to control heat transfer, enabling a means of thermal energy control at the micro- and nano-scales.

Voltage tunability of thermal conductivity in ferroelectric materials

Synthetic thermoelectric materials comprising phononic crystals can simultaneously have a large Seebeck coefficient, high electrical conductivity, and low thermal conductivity. Such synthetic thermoelectric materials can enable improved thermoelectric devices, such as thermoelectric generators and coolers, with improved performance. Such synthetic thermoelectric materials and devices can be fabricated using techniques that are compatible with standard microelectronics.

Synthetic thermoelectric materials comprising phononic crystals

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Charlottesville, VA, United States of America

Patrick Edward Hopkins