Simultaneous Heat and Electron transport in metallic multilayers

Transport processes in thin films are central in the understanding and optimization of integrated circuits or other functional materials. Heat conduction matters for removal of ohmic heat, but also has to controlled in thermoelectric devices, where phonon conduction has to be minimized against electron transport. We propose to investigate the simultaneous energy transduction in nanometric thin films in the electronic and phonon subsystem by photo-exciting charge carrier and quantify the conversion into heat across the transducer-functional film interface by tailoring the composition and morphology of the interface. Thereby we aim to gain access to the role of the interface of such transport as well as explore pathways for hot-electron injection.