Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-956mj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-19T11:35:17.466Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nanomechanics of Thin Films: Emphasis: Tensile Properties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2011

R. W. Hoffman
R. W. Hoffman*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106
Get access

Abstract

Tensile properties of thin films may be interpreted as a structure sensitive plastic region superposed on an elastic background in a manner similar to bulk specimen tensile testing. However, the limitations of both the material and tensile instrument have not usually been tested in detail.

We report our experience with aluminum and alumina films some 100 nm thick prepared by evaporation of Al followed by anodization for the alumina film. Self-supporting films are glued to glass “jaws” of the nanotensilometer and force-elongation data recorded. Mounting thickness, glue slip-page, instrument calibration, and other possible artifacts will be examined in detail. A typical Al stress-strain curve has an initial small curved region interpreted as a mounting artifact, followed by a primarily elastic (near linear) region and increasing plastic deformation until failure occurs. Alumina films fail in a brittle manner. Characterization techniques include TEM, RBS, and other surface spectroscopies; selected examples will be reported. Strain rate and preliminary annealing data are presented with a microscopic interpretation.

In general, thin metal films are less ductile than their bulk counterparts, grain sizes are much smaller, and they may possess large stresses and unexpected impurities, but have mechanical properties that can be modelled.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 130: Symposium C – Thin Films: Stresses and Mechanical Properties I , 1988 , 295
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Hoffman, R.W., Physics of Thin films, Vol.3, Hass and Thun, eds., Academic Press, (1966); NATO Advanced Topic Summer School, Corsica (1974). Published in NATO Advanced Study Institute Series B Vol.14, Plenum Press (1976).Google Scholar
2. Smith, C.S. in Solid State Physics, Vol. 6, Seitz and Turnbull eds. Academic Press (1956).Google Scholar
3. Hoffman, R.W., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol.69, 95 (1986).Google Scholar
4. Hoffman, R.W., Mechanical Properties of Thin Films, AVS Short Course, 1st Edition (1978); 2nd Edition (1979); 3rd Edition (1983). Published under the auspices of the Education Committee, The American Vacuum Society (1983).Google Scholar
5. Kuan, T-S. and Murakami, M., Metall. Trans. 13A, 383 (1982).Google Scholar
6. Laugier, M., Thin Solid Films 75, L17 (1981).Google Scholar
7. Janda, M., Thin Solid Films 412, 219 (1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8a. Doerner, M.F., Gardner, D.J., and Nix, W.D., J. Mater. Res. 1, 845 (1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8b. Flinn, D.A., Gardner, D.S., and Nix, W.D., IEEE Trans. on Electron Devices, Vol. ED–34, 689 (March, 1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. Hoffman, R.W., Hoffman, R.W. Jr., and Mitchell, T.E., Thin Solid Films 154, 149 (1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10. Hoffman, R.W., Advances in Chemistry (J.L. Koenig, ed.) 174, 25 (1979).Google Scholar
11. Blakely, J.M., Journ. Appl. Phys. 35, 1756 (1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12. Ronay, M. and Aliotta, C.F., Philos. Mag. A 42, 161 (1980).Google Scholar
13. Murakami, M., Kuan, T-S., and Blech, I.A., in Treatise on Materials Science Technology, K.N. Tu and R. Rosenberg, eds., Academic Press (1982).Google Scholar