Radiative Heat Transfer in Free-Standing Silicon Nitride Membranes

Abstract: Free-standing silicon nitride (SiN) mechanical resonators are of central interests in applications such as temperature and mass sensing, and for fundamental optomechanical reasearch. Understanding thermal coupling between a membrane resonator and its environment is required for predicting thermal noise, frequency noise, as well as sensors responses to temperature changes. In this work, we provide closed-form derivations of intrinsic thermal coupling quantities in free-standing thin films, namely total thermal conductance with the surroundings, thermal response time, and the relative contribution of thermal radiation. Our model is valid for any free-standing thin film anchored on all sides, although we particularly emphasize the specific case of SiN for which spectral emissivity is thoroughly investigated as a function of thickness and temperature. We find that radiative heat exchanges can play a non-negligible role, and even dominate thermal coupling for membranes of sizes commonly employed in optomechanics experiments. We experimentally confirm the validity of our model by measuring radiative thermal coupling between a SiN mechanical resonator and a ceramic heater in high vacuum.