Measurement of the Thermal Diffusivity of an Anisotropic Graphite Sheet Using a Laser-Heating AC Calorimetric Method

The thermal diffusivity of a graphite sheet having an extremely high anisotropy has been measured by a laser heating AC calorimetric method in the temperature range from 30 to 350 K. This graphite sheet has characteristics of high thermal diffusivity and high anisotropy, and it is only 100 μm thick. Thus, it is difficult to apply the conventional AC technique. Therefore, we propose a simultaneous measurement method for the in-plane and out-of-plane thermal diffusivities, by analyzing the three-dimensional heat conduction process, which contains the effects of anisotropy and thermal wave reflections. This method was verified by checking with thermal diffusivity measurements of isotropic materials such as stainless steel and pure copper and was then applied to the anisotropic thermal diffusivity measurement of the graphite sheet.