Heat dissipation in electronic devices has become the bottleneck to further improve their speed operation and performance. Graphene has attracted significant interest to overcome this challenge and advance next-generation devices because of its exceptional mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. In particular, the extraordinary high thermal conductivity of graphene, in the range of 2000–4000 W.m ^–1.K ^–1, makes this material ideal to boost heat dissipation in energy-efficient devices [1,2].

While theoretical studies have suggested that graphene’s thermal conductivity depends on the number of layers, experimental validation remains limited [1,3]. Previous research has reported thermal measurements for suspended multilayer graphene [3], however, the geometry of suspended graphene differs significantly from that of supported graphene, which is more relevant for the architecture required in electronic devices. In fact, the thermal properties of supported graphene can vary considerably from those of suspended graphene. Even though some pump-probe measurements have already been performed on supported exfoliated graphene [4], the exfoliation process yields small sample sizes, that can cause challenges in the measurements. Not only this, the small sample size can also hinder broader applicability of graphene in emerging technologies. In this work, we investigate the thermal transport properties of large-area, chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown graphene and few-layers graphene on quartz substrates using frequency-domain thermoreflectance (FDTR). This in-house, non-contact pump-probe technique enables the assessment of layer-dependent thermal behavior in supported graphene. While FDTR is primarily used for studying bulk materials and thick layers, its application to ultra-thin layered materials like graphene introduces challenges in both measurement and thermal modeling. We overcome this limitation and show clear variations in the thermal signal among different graphene layers. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of thermal transport in 2D materials and support their integration into practical thermal management applications.

[1] Balandin, ACS Nano, 14, 5170−5178 (2020).

[2] Zheng, et. al. Carbon 233, 119908 (2025).

[3] Li et.al. Nanoscale, 9, 10784 (2017).

[4] Yang et.al. Journal of Applied Physics 116, 023515 (2014).