Mesoscopic thermal transport and energy dissipation in carbon nanotubes

We have measured the thermal conductivity of an individual multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) using a microfabricated suspended device. The observed thermal conductivity is more than 3000 W/K-m at room temperature, which is two orders of magnitude higher than the estimation from previous experiments that used macroscopic mat samples. In addition, the temperature distributions in electrically heated MWNTs have been measured with a scanning thermal microscope. The temperature profiles along the tube axis in MWNTs indicate the bulk dissipation of electronic energy to phonons, which suggests diffusive electronic transport. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.