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Substrate effects on indentation plastic zone development in thin soft films

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Abstract

Plastic zone evolution in Al–2 wt% Si metal films on silicon and sapphire substrates was studied using nanoindentation and atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM was used to measure the extent of plastic pileup, which is a measure of the plastic zone radius in the film. It was found that the plastic zone size develops in a self-similar fashion with increasing indenter penetration when normalized by the contact radius, regardless of film hardness or underlying substrate properties. This behavior was used to develop a hardness model that uses the extent of the plastic zone radius to calculate a core region within the indenter contact that is subject to an elevated contact pressure. AFM measurements also indicated that as film thickness decreases, constraint imposed by the indenter and substrate traps the film thereby reducing the pileup volume.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metallurgy Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 20899-8553, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

    D. E. Kramer

  2. Motorola, DigitalDNA Labs, Process and Materials Characterization Lab, 85202, Mesa, Arizona, USA

    A. A. Volinsky

  3. Materials Reliability Division, Sandia National Labs, 94551-0969, Livermore, California, USA

    N. R. Moody

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, 55455, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    W. W. Gerberich

Authors
  1. D. E. Kramer
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  2. A. A. Volinsky
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  3. N. R. Moody
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  4. W. W. Gerberich
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Kramer, D.E., Volinsky, A.A., Moody, N.R. et al. Substrate effects on indentation plastic zone development in thin soft films. Journal of Materials Research 16, 3150–3157 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2001.0434

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2001.0434

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