Calculation of Specific Heat for Aluminium Thin Films

We employ Prasher’s non-dimensional form to analyse the size effects on specific heat of Al thin films. Compared the calculation results of pure aluminium film with the experimental data, it is found that the reduction of phonon states is not the main reason of the size effect on the specific heat Al thin films with thickness from 10nm to 370nm. However, the Al thin film in air usually has an oxidation layer and the specific heat of the layer is smaller than Al. By including the contribution of the oxidation layer to the thin-film specific heat, the calculation results are much closer to the experimental data. This may be a possible reason of the size effects on specific heat of Al thin films.