Application of Vickers Indentation Cracking to the Evaluation of Mechanical Properties of Very Thin Metallic Films

摘要

Radial cracks formed in brittle materials by Vickers indentation were used as nano-scale tensile tests for very thin metallic films coated on the brittle substrates. For the purpose of evaluating the mechanical properties of the films, a fracture-mechanics-based model was proposed, in which the crack opening displacements (COD) of film/substrate crack systems were related with the plastic deformation and failure of the films. The application of this technique to gold film/glass substrate systems indicated the possibility of the measurement of mechanical properties of very thin metallic coatings with a thickness of several 10 nm.