Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2015
Lithographically fabricated gold nanowires are optically excited with 532nm CW laser and the local temperature change is measured in air, pure water and various concentration aqueous solutions of ionic solutes NaCl, Na2SO4 and MgSO4 using the thermal sensor film of Al0.94Ga0.06N embedded with Er3+ ions. The interface thermal resistance for heat transfer from the excited nanowires into the surrounding liquid is determined from the slopes of the temperature change versus laser intensity plots obtained for the nanowire excitation under various solutions. Addition of ionic solute molecules into the solution decreases the interface thermal resistance and hence leads to increased heat dissipation into the surrounding liquid. Interface thermal resistance decreases exponentially with the ionic strength of solution and saturates around zero for solution ionic strength of 0.3M and higher.