Measurement of the anisotropic thermal conductivity of molybdenum disulfide by the time-resolved magneto-optic Kerr effect

We use pump-probe metrology based on the magneto-optic Kerr effect to measure the anisotropic thermal conductivity of (001)-oriented MoS2 crystals. A ≈20 nm thick CoPt multilayer with perpendicular magnetization serves as the heater and thermometer in the experiment. The low thermal conductivity and small thickness of the CoPt transducer improve the sensitivity of the measurement to lateral heat flow in the MoS2 crystal. The thermal conductivity of MoS2 is highly anisotropic with basal-plane thermal conductivity varying between 85–110 W m-1 K-1 as a function of laser spot size. The basal-plane thermal conductivity is a factor of ≈50 larger than the c-axis thermal conductivity, 2.0±0.3 W m-1 K-1.