Very Sensitive Nanocalorimetry of Small Mass Systems and Glassy Materials

Nanocalorimetry is a technique that deals with any thermal measurement methods in which either the samples to be studied have a size in the range of the nanometer scale or the measured energies involved are of the order of the nanojoule or below Garden et al (Acta 492:16–28, 2009). In this paper, we show the results of two nanocalorimetric experiments. The first one is related to the measurement of specific heat on ultra-thin small systems (thin films) at low temperature. It is shown that such measurement can be sensitive to less than one monolayer of materials. The second one illustrates the efficiency of calorimetric studies sensitive at the nanoJoule on complex system (polymeric glass) at room temperature. We then discuss the potentiality of these experimental methods in the field of security: the measurement of either a very small mass or very small quantity of energy for the detection of tiny thermal events.