Quantized thermal conductance: measurements in nanostructures

Abstract

We are performing experiments to probe directly the thermal conductance of suspended nanostructures with lateral dimensions ≈100 nm. It has been recently predicted that at low temperatures, thermal conductance in such a structure approaches a universal value of π^2k_B^2T/3h for each massless, ballistic phonon channel, independent of material characteristics. We have developed ultra-sensitive, low dissipation DC-SQUID-based noise thermometry, and extreme isolation from the electronic environment in order to perform this measurement at temperatures below 70 mK.

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