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Non-Destructive Measurement of the Density of Thin Coatings by a Combination of Instrumented (Nano) Indentation and Acoustical Techniques.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Nigel M. Jennett ,
Giles Aldrich-Smith  and
Antony S. Maxwell
Nigel M. Jennett
Affiliation:
National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW, U.K.
Giles Aldrich-Smith
Affiliation:
National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW, U.K.
Antony S. Maxwell
Affiliation:
National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW, U.K.
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Abstract

Nanoindentation is used to provide a measurement of coating plain strain modulus. The coating properties are then measured by surface acoustic wave spectroscopy (SAWS). It is shown that, by exploiting the relative insensitivity of the SAWS acoustical model to Poisson's ratio, it is possible to measure either the thickness or the density of a thin coating given the input of the other. Furthermore, the indentation and acoustical tests are non-destructive and the resulting value of thickness or density is of high precision. A case study is presented for the measurement of density for a 250 nm thick nano-crystalline Niobium coating on a Si (001) substrate. The density is found to be ρ = 8.4 ± 0.3 g cm−3, about 2 % below bulk values but the modulus is found to be only 85 GPa (for a Poisson's ratio of 0.4), which is 18 % below bulk.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 841: Symposium R – Fundamentals of Nanoindentation and Nanotribology III , 2004 , R12.8
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

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References

REFERENCES

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