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Quantum Thermometry with Single Molecules in Nanoprobes

V. Esteso1,2,3,†, R. Duquennoy1,4,†, R.C. Ng5, M. Colautti1,2, P. Lombardi1,2, G. Arregui5,6, E. Chavez-Angel5, C.M. Sotomayor-Torres5,7, P.D. Garcia8 et al.

M. Hilke9,10 and C. Toninelli1,2,*

  • 1National Institute of Optics [(Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche CNR)–INO)], care of European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), Via Nello Carrara 1, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019, Italy
  • 2European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), Via Nello Carrara 1, Sesto Fiorentino 50019, Italy
  • 3Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada, Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales de Sevilla (ICMSE)–Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Universidad de Sevilla, P. O. Box 1065, Sevilla 41080, Spain
  • 4Physics Department, University of Naples, Via Cinthia 21, Fuorigrotta 80126, Italy
  • 5Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) Campus, Bellaterra, Barcelona 08193, Spain
  • 6Department of Electrical and Photonics Engineering, DTU Electro, Technical University of Denmark, Østeds Plads 343, Kongens Lyngby, DK-2800, Denmark
  • 7Institución Catalana de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados (ICREA), Passeig Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona 08010, Spain
  • 8Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Calle Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 3, Madrid, 28049 Spain
  • 9Department of Physics, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec H3A 2T8, Canada
  • 10Department of Physics, University of Florence, Via Sansone 1, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019, Italy

  • *toninelli@lens.unifi.it
  • †These authors contributed equally to this work.
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PRX Quantum 4, 040314 – Published 20 October, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.4.040314

Abstract

An understanding of heat transport is relevant to developing efficient strategies for thermal management in areas of study such as microelectronics, as well as for fundamental science purposes. However, the measurement of temperatures in nanostructured environments and in cryogenic conditions remains a challenging task, requiring both high sensitivity and noninvasive approaches. Here, we present a portable nanothermometer based on a molecular two-level quantum system that operates in the (3–20)-K temperature range, with temperatures and spatial resolutions on the order of millikelvins and micrometers, respectively. We validate the performance of this molecular thermometer by estimating the thermal conductivity of a nanopatterned silicon membrane, where we find a quadratic temperature dependence. In addition, we demonstrate two-dimensional temperature mapping via the simultaneous spectroscopy of multiple probes deposited onto such a suspended membrane. Overall, these results demonstrate the unique potential of the proposed molecular thermometer to explore thermal properties with submicron accuracy and unveil related phenomena manifested at cryogenic temperatures.

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Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

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Molecular Thermometer Works Near Absolute Zero

Published 20 October, 2023

A new thermometer allows thermal mapping of surfaces with microscale resolution and enables studies of heat flow through materials at cryogenic temperatures.

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Popular Summary

Temperature is one of the main parameters to be controlled and measured in most physical experiments. As the size of a sample decreases, thermometers themselves begin to perturb the system to be measured, and minimizing its invasivity becomes an important consideration. A similar problem occurs at low temperatures, where the thermal capacities of materials decrease, meaning that small amounts of heat significantly change the material temperature. These challenges are cumulative when incorporating thermometers at cryogenic temperatures with small dimensions. In this work, we show how the exploitation of the emission properties of a quantum emitter consisting of a single organic molecule inserted as an impurity into an anthracene crystal allows for the measurement of temperatures between 3 and 20 K with submicrometer spatial resolutions.

At low temperature, dibenzoterrylene (DBT) behaves as a two-level quantum system whose transition width is strongly dependent on temperature. Utilizing this fact allows for DBT to act as a low-temperature nanoscale thermometer upon appropriate calibration. We validate the performance of our nanothermometer by estimating the thermal conductance of a suspended silicon membrane. Finally, we measure the temperature profile on the membrane induced by a heating laser by simultaneously probing many DBT molecules distributed at different positions on the surface.

We show that the sensitivity obtained is unprecedented in our size and temperature range. These characteristics are promising for future investigations concerning thermal-conduction regimes beyond Fourier diffusion and for accurately monitoring temperature in micrometer-scale structures.

Article Text

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PRX Quantum 4, 040314– Published 20 October, 2023
  • Received 22 February 2023
  • Revised 3 July 2023
  • Accepted 2 August 2023
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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