Parallel thermal conductance technique for measuring thermal conductivity of smaller thermoelectric materials

We have recently developed a technique to evaluate the thermal conductivity as a function of temperature for materials of relatively small dimensions (L/spl sim/2 mm, A/spl sim/0.05 mm/sup 2/). The parallel thermal conductance technique, or PTC, consists of an initial base-line thermal conductance measurement of a sample stage then a measurement of the stage and sample together. The difference between the baseline and baseline plus sample, coupled with high-precision measurements of the sample dimensions, provides a straightforward and effective method of determining the thermal conductivity of relatively small samples.