Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-28T23:42:50.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nanomechanical Testing for Fracture of Oxide Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2005

K.R. Morasch  and
D.F. Bahr
K.R. Morasch
Affiliation:
Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-2920
D.F. Bahr*
Affiliation:
Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-2920
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author.e-mail: bahr@mme.wsu.edu
Get access

Abstract

The mechanical properties of thermally grown oxide films on various aluminum substrates were tested using nanoindentation. A sudden discontinuity, indicative of film fracture, was observed upon loading portion of the load–depth curve. The 63-nm-thick films were determined to have ultimate strengths between 4.8 and 8.9 GPa. The ultimate stress is a superposition of the bending and membrane stress. The stress intensity at fracture for each of the films was developed by approximating the resulting bending moment and various cracks sizes. At a constant ratio of crack size to oxide thickness of 0.3, the applied stress intensity at fracture of these aluminum oxide films were between 0.46 and 1.20 MPa m1/2. The residual stress in the film was assumed to be negligible in the stress intensity calculation.

Keywords

FractureNanoindentationThin film
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 20 , Issue 6 , June 2005 , pp. 1490 - 1497
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

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

REFERENCES

1Chechenin, N.G., Bottiger, J. and Krog, J.P.: Nanoindentation of amorphous aluminum oxide films II. Critical parameters for the breakthrough and a membrane effect in thin hard films on soft substrates. Thin Solid Films 261, 228 (1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2Pang, M. and Bahr, D.F.: Thin-film fracture during nanoindentation of a titanium oxide film–titanium system. J. Mater. Res. 16, 2634 (2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3Page, T.F., Oliver, W.C. and McHargue, C.J.: The deformation behavior of ceramic crystals subjected to very low load (nano) indentations. J. Mater. Res. 7, 450 (1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4Venkataraman, S.K., Kohlstedt, D.L. and Gerberich, W.W.: Continuous microindentation of passivating surfaces. J. Mater. Res. 8, 685 (1993).Google Scholar
5Kramer, D.E., Yoder, K.B. and Gerberich, W.W.: Surface constrained plasticity: Oxide rupture and the yield point process. Philos. Mag. A 81, 2033 (2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6Bahr, D.F., Woodcock, C.L., Pang, M., Weaver, K.D. and Moody, N.R.: Indentation induced film fracture in hard film–soft substrate systems. Inter. J. Frac. 119/120, 339 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7Rodriquez–Marek, D., Pang, M. and Bahr, D.F.: Mechanical measurements of passive film fracture on an austenitic stainless steel. Metall. Mater. Trans. 34A, 1291 (2003).Google Scholar
8Hainsworth, S.V., McGurk, M.R. and Page, T.F.: The effect of coating cracking on the indentation response of thin hard coated systems. Surf. Coat. Technol. 102, 97 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9Andersson, R., Toth, G., Gan, L. and Swain, M.V.: Indentation response and cracking of sub-micron silica films on a polymeric substrate. Eng. Fract. Mech. 61, 93 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10McGurk, M.R., Chandler, H.W., Twigg, P.C. and Page, T.F.: Modelling the hardness response of coated systems: The plate bending approach. Surf. Coat. Technol. 68/69, 576 (1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11Gerberich, W.W., Strojny, A., Yoder, K. and Cheng, L-S.: Hard protective overlayers on viscoelastic-plastic substrates. J. Mater. Res. 14, 2210 (1999).Google Scholar
12Wepplemann, E. and Swain, M.V.: Investigation of the stresses and stress intensity factors responsible for fracture of thin protective films during ultra-micro indentation tests with spherical indenters. Thin Solid Films 286, 111 (1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13Chai, H. and Lawn, B.R.: Fracture mode transitions in brittle coatings on compliant substrates as a function of thickness. J. Mater. Res. 19, 1752 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14Johnson, K.L.: Contact Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15Brace, A.W.: The Technology of Anodising Aluminum (Robert Draper, Teddington, U.K., 1968) pp. 1–6.Google Scholar
16Kramer, D., Huang, H., Kriese, M., Robach, J., Nelson, J., Wright, A., Bahr, D. and Gerberich, W.W.: Yield strength predictions from the plastic zone around nanocontacts. Acta Mater. 47, 333 (1998).Google Scholar
17Hainsworth, S.V., Chandler, H.W. and Page, T.F.: Analysis of nanoindentation load-displacement loading curves. J. Mater. Res. 11, 1987 (1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18Timoshenko, S., Kreiger, S. and Woinowsky, S.: Theory of Plates and Shells (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1959).Google Scholar
19Kingery, W.D., Bowen, H.K. and Uhlman, D.R.: Introduction to Ceramics, 2nd ed. (Wiley, New York, 1976), p. 777.Google Scholar
20Kaye, G.W.C. and Laby, T.H.: Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants, 14th ed. (Longman, London, U.K., 1973), p. 31.Google Scholar
21Lawn, B.R.: Fracture and deformation in brittle solids: A perspective on the issue of scale. J. Mater. Res. 19, 22 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22Hartog, J.P. Den: Advanced Strength of Materials (Dover Publications, New York, 1952).Google Scholar
23Sih, G.C.: Handbook of Stress Intensity Factors (Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, 1973).Google Scholar
24Thurn, J. and Cook, R.F.: Mechanical and thermal properties of physical vapour deposited alumina films: Part II Elastic, plastic, fracture, and adhesive behaviour. J. Mater. Sci. 39, 4809 (2004).Google Scholar