Controlling electrothermal behavior of Metal–Carbon hybrid wire in free molecular flow region

Abstract

We investigated the heat loss of the metal wire to the gases in the free molecular region, whose pressure is below 10−3 Pa. The heat transfer characteristics at the interface between the metal surface and the gases are only accessible when the conductional heat loss along the wire is comparable to or less than 100 nW/K. Unfortunately, such an infinitesimal heat flow is not controllable from typical metal wire. For this reason, we have synthesized a new material, metal-carbon hybrid wire (MCHW). In the free molecular flow region, the resistance of MCHW is inversely proportional to the pressure (P), R∼1/P, regardless of gas species, which contradicts the gas-dependent heat loss theory. At a pressure <1 × 10−4 Pa, we observe a deviation from reciprocal linearity attributed to a growing radiational heat loss. Our results realize the thermal conductive sensing of the pressure below 10−5 Pa, which has been unprecedented.