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Mechanical Behavior of Nano-crystalline Metallic Thin Films and Multilayers Under Microcompression

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Abstract

Microcompression tests were performed to determine the mechanical behavior of nano-crystalline Cu/Fe and Fe/Cu multilayers, as well as monolithic Cu and Fe thin films. The results show that the micropillars of pure Cu thin film bulge out under large compressive strains without failure, while those of pure Fe thin film crack near the top at low compressive strains followed by shear failure. For Cu/Fe and Fe/Cu multilayers, the Cu layers accommodate the majority of plastic deformation, and the geometry constraints imposed by Fe layers exaggerates the bulging in the Cu layers. However, the existence of ductile Cu layers does not improve the overall ductility of Cu/Fe and Fe/Cu multilayers. Cracking in the Fe layers directly lead to the failure of the multilayer micropillars, although the Cu layers have very good ductility. The results imply that suppressing the cracking of brittle layers is more important than simply adding ductile layers for improving the overall ductility of metallic multilayers.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Australian Research Council through the Laureate Fellowship for P.D. Hodgson.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, 3217, Australia

    Jiangting Wang (Associate Research Fellow) & Peter D. Hodgson (Director)

  2. School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia

    Chunhui Yang (Associate Professor)

Authors
  1. Jiangting Wang
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  2. Chunhui Yang
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  3. Peter D. Hodgson
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Correspondence to Jiangting Wang.

Additional information

Manuscript submitted August 17, 2014.

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Wang, J., Yang, C. & Hodgson, P.D. Mechanical Behavior of Nano-crystalline Metallic Thin Films and Multilayers Under Microcompression. Metall Mater Trans A 46, 1405–1412 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-014-2715-1

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