Fatigue at Nanoscale: An Integrated Stiffness and Depth Sensing Approach to Investigate the Mechanisms of Failure in Diamondlike Carbon Film

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Ahmed ◽  
Y. Q. Fu ◽  
N. H. Faisal

Nanoscale impact fatigue tests were conducted to comprehend the relative fatigue performance and failure modes of 100 nm thick diamondlike carbon (DLC) film deposited on a 4 in. diameter Si (100) wafer of 500 μm thickness. The nanofatigue tests were performed using a calibrated TriboIndenter equipped with Berkovich indenter in the load range of 300–1000 μN. Each test was conducted for a total of 999 fatigue cycles (a low cycle fatigue test). Contact depth in this load range varied from 10 to 30 nm. An integrated contact stiffness and depth sensing approach was adapted to understand the mechanisms of fatigue failure. The contact depth and stiffness data indicated some peculiar characteristics, which provided some insights into the mechanisms of cohesive and adhesive failure in thin films. Based on the contact stiffness and depth data, and surface observations of failed DLC films using atomic force microscope and scanning probe microscopy, a five-stage failure mechanism is proposed. The failure of films starts from cohesive failure via cracks perpendicular to the film/substrate interface, resulting in a decrease in contact depth with number of fatigue cycles and no appreciable change in contact stiffness. This is followed by film delamination at the film/substrate interface and release of elastic stored energy (residual stress) resulting in an increase in contact stiffness. Finally, as the film breaks apart the contact stiffness decreases with a corresponding increase in contact depth.

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 260-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvete Toivola ◽  
Andreas Stein ◽  
Robert F. Cook

Depth-sensing indentation was applied to three-dimensionally ordered silica foams of two different pore diameters—500 nm and 850 nm—formed by colloidal crystal templating. The contact responses of indentations with Berkovich and hemispherical indentation tips are presented over a load range of 1 mN to 100 mN. Scanning electron microscopy images of residual indentation impressions showed homogeneous deformation for small loads in which the peak displacement was shallow relative to the film–substrate interface. The characteristics of the load–displacement responses changed from periodic discontinuities, associated with cell wall fracture and pore collapse, to smooth and increased stiffness, as a result of densification due to the accumulation of material under the indentation tip and proximity (and contact) of the substrate. Load–displacement responses were translated into pressure–volume space, in which the average pressure during indentation is a measure of the crushing pressure of the cell walls.


2003 ◽  
Vol 779 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. John Balk ◽  
Gerhard Dehm ◽  
Eduard Arzt

AbstractWhen confronted by severe geometric constraints, dislocations may respond in unforeseen ways. One example of such unexpected behavior is parallel glide in unpassivated, ultrathin (200 nm and thinner) metal films. This involves the glide of dislocations parallel to and very near the film/substrate interface, following their emission from grain boundaries. In situ transmission electron microscopy reveals that this mechanism dominates the thermomechanical behavior of ultrathin, unpassivated copper films. However, according to Schmid's law, the biaxial film stress that evolves during thermal cycling does not generate a resolved shear stress parallel to the film/substrate interface and therefore should not drive such motion. Instead, it is proposed that the observed dislocations are generated as a result of atomic diffusion into the grain boundaries. This provides experimental support for the constrained diffusional creep model of Gao et al.[1], in which they described the diffusional exchange of atoms between the unpassivated film surface and grain boundaries at high temperatures, a process that can locally relax the film stress near those boundaries. In the grains where it is observed, parallel glide can account for the plastic strain generated within a film during thermal cycling. One feature of this mechanism at the nanoscale is that, as grain size decreases, eventually a single dislocation suffices to mediate plasticity in an entire grain during thermal cycling. Parallel glide is a new example of the interactions between dislocations and the surface/interface, which are likely to increase in importance during the persistent miniaturization of thin film geometries.


2014 ◽  
Vol 116 (19) ◽  
pp. 193511 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. P. Lindberg ◽  
T. O'Loughlin ◽  
N. Gross ◽  
A. Mishchenko ◽  
A. Reznik ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 116 (22) ◽  
pp. 12149-12155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirly Borukhin ◽  
Cecile Saguy ◽  
Maria Koifman ◽  
Boaz Pokroy

1992 ◽  
Vol 280 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Chandra Sekhar ◽  
A. K. Ballal ◽  
L. Salamanca-Riba ◽  
D. L. Partin

ABSTRACTHeteroepitaxial growth of indium arsenide films on indium phosphide substrates is being actively pursued since the electronic properties of these films make them promising materials for optoelectronic and other high speed devices. The various structural aspects of the film that affect their electronic properties are structural defects like dislocations, film-substrate interface roughness and chemical inhomogeneities. In InAs films, electrons accumulate at the film-air interface, making surface morphology an important factor that decides the electronic properties. The InAs films used in this study were grown on InP substrates by metal organic vapor deposition, at different temperatures. A higher growth temperature not only resulted in poor surface morphology of the film, but also created a rough film-substrate interface. However, at all deposition temperatures, the film-substrate interfaces are sharp. At lower growth temperature, the interfaces were flat. Films grown at lower temperatures had good surface morphology and a flat and shaip heterointerface.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 172-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan I. Argatov ◽  
Feodor M. Borodich ◽  
Svetlana A. Epshtein ◽  
Elena L. Kossovich

Author(s):  
Naoto Kasahara ◽  
Izumi Nakamura ◽  
Hideo Machida ◽  
Hitoshi Nakamura ◽  
Koji Okamoto

As the important lessons learned from the Fukushima-nuclear power plant accident, mitigation of failure consequences and prevention of catastrophic failure became essential against severe accident and excessive earthquake conditions. To improve mitigation measures and accident management, clarification of failure behaviors with locations is premise under design extension conditions such as severe accidents and earthquakes. Design extension conditions induce some different failure modes from design conditions. Furthermore, best estimation for these failure modes are required for preparing countermeasures and management. Therefore, this study focused on identification of failure modes under design extension conditions. To observe ultimate failure behaviors of structures under extreme loadings, new experimental techniques were adopted with simulation materials such as lead and lead-antimony alloy, which has very small yield stress. Postulated failure modes of main components under design extension conditions were investigated according three categories of loading modes. The first loading mode is high temperature and internal pressure. Under this mode, ductile fracture and local failure were investigated. At the structural discontinuities, local failure may become dominant. The second is high temperature and external pressure loading mode. Buckling and fracture were investigated. Buckling occurs however hardly break without additional loads or constraints. The last loading is excessive earthquake. Ratchet deformation, collapse, and fatigue were investigated. Among them, low-cycle fatigue is dominant.


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