Uncertainty analysis of thermoreflectance measurements
Abstract
We derive a generally applicable formula to calculate the precision of multi-parameter measurements that apply least squares algorithms. This formula, which accounts for experimental noise and uncertainty in the controlled model parameters, is then used to analyze the uncertainty of thermal property measurements with pump-probe thermoreflectance techniques. We compare the uncertainty of time domain thermoreflectance and frequency domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) when measuring bulk materials and thin films, considering simultaneous measurements of various combinations of thermal properties, including thermal conductivity, heat capacity, and thermal boundary conductance. We validate the uncertainty analysis using Monte Carlo simulations on data from FDTR measurements of an 80 nm gold film on fused silica.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The multivariate error-propagation formula has been validated by the Monte Carlo method but is much more computationally efficient, taking seconds rather than days.
“This multivariate errorpropagation formula has been validated by the Monte Carlo method 127 but is much more computationally efficient: it takes only a few seconds to complete the analysis on a desktop computer using MATLAB scripts rather than a few days as needed by the Monte Carlo method.”
From Tutorial: Time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) for thermal property characterization of bulk and thin film materials (2018) · cites this paper as [127]
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 33 · Cited by 174
- Authors
- Yang, J., Ziade, E., & Schmidt, A. J.
- Affiliations
- Boston University (US)
- Venue
- Review of Scientific Instruments
- Publisher
- AIP Publishing
- Published
- 2016-01-01
- Volume
- 87
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 014901-014901
- ISSN
- 0034-6748 (ISSN-L)
- 1089-7623
- OpenAlex
- W2238896166
- Cited by
- 174
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 11
- FWCI
- 6.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Review of Scientific Instruments (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Trustees of Boston University
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Thermal properties of materials
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanics of Materials › Thermography and Photoacoustic Techniques
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Scientific Measurement and Uncertainty Evaluation
- Keywords
- thermoreflectance, measurement uncertainty, uncertainty analysis, frequency-domain thermoreflectance, time-domain thermoreflectance, thermal conductivity, heat capacity, thermal boundary conductance, thin films, gold films, fused silica, Monte Carlo simulation, experimental noise, model parameter uncertainty
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
