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Combinatorial investigation of the mechanical properties of aluminum-silicon thin film nanocomposites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

C.H. Olk ,
M. Lukitsch  and
D.B. Haddad
C.H. Olk*
Affiliation:
Materials and Processes Laboratory, General Motors Research and Development Center, Warren, Michigan 48090
M. Lukitsch
Affiliation:
Materials and Processes Laboratory, General Motors Research and Development Center, Warren, Michigan 48090
D.B. Haddad
Affiliation:
School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: charles.h.olk@gm.com
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Abstract

We have undertaken the exploration of AlxSi1−x material systems to discover new alloys with enhanced mechanical properties. Combinatorial methods were used to systematically control thin film microstructure through variations in composition and growth temperature. Discrete libraries of compositionally graded films have been sputter deposited onto silicon substrates to produce two structural phase regions: amorphous Al–Si and amorphous Si plus crystalline Al. The mechanical properties of the thin films were determined through indentation experiments by analyzing the load–displacement traces based on the Oliver–Pharr method. X-ray diffraction was used to investigate the microstructures and determine the crystallite sizes. In samples with an Al concentration near 55 at.%, the data show that decreasing the Al crystallite size by nearly one half increases the nanocomposite hardness by nearly a factor of two.

Keywords

Combinatorial synthesisElastic propertiesNanoscale
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , April 2007 , pp. 1029 - 1036
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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