We report on measurements of the thermal conductivity of epitaxially grown nitride thin films. These semiconductor materials are of considerable technological importance for applications such as blue-light emitters and high-power, high frequency electronic devices. Measurements were made in the temperature range of 150–400 K using an optical technique in which the sample is heated with an ultrashort (∼150 fs) light pulse, and a time-delayed probe light pulse is used to measure the temperature of the sample as a function of time. The conductivity of the polycrystalline sample and the alloys are found to be significantly reduced compared to published values for bulk GaN.

The specific heats of hydrogen, deuterium, and neon in porous Vycor glass have been measured.The freezing and melting temperatures have been determined, and a lower limit has been placed on the values of the liquid-solid surface energy.

We demonstrate picosecond time-resolved pump-probe experiments with subwavelength resolution using a reflection near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM). The sample was a laterally patterned gold nanostructure. Strain-induced reflectivity changes as low as ΔR/R≊10−4 were detected in the near-field.