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Nanoindentation in Tin/Nbn Multilayers and Thin Films Examined Using Transmission Electron Microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

S.J. Lloyd ,
J.E. Pitchford ,
J.M. Molina-Aldareguia ,
Z.H. Barber ,
M.G. Blamire  and
W.J. Clegg
S.J. Lloyd
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, UK
J.E. Pitchford
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, UK
J.M. Molina-Aldareguia
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, UK
Z.H. Barber
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, UK
M.G. Blamire
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, UK
W.J. Clegg
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, UK
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Extract

Nanoindentation allows the hardness of thin coatings and synthetic multilayer structures to be measured, since indentation depths can be as little as a few 10s of nm. In combination with the cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis described here it is possible to observe the deformation structure under an indent, and potentially to understand deformation mechanisms on a nm scale in a wide variety of materials. Synthetic multilayers are a particularly interesting system to investigate. Variations in hardness with the multilayer compositional repeat distance (A) have been reported for several systems. The highest hardnesses, which are in excess of what a simple “rule of mixtures” would predict, occur in nitride multilayers at A ∼5nm. Here we present some preliminary results showing the deformation structure in both a monolithic NbN film and a TiN/NbN multilayer in which both components have the rQck salt structure with lattice parameters 0.424nm (TiN) and 0.439nm (NbN).

Type
Future of Microscopy: Ceramics, Composites, and Cement
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 5 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '99, Microscopy Society of America 57th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 33rd Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon August 1-5, 1999 , August 1999 , pp. 776 - 777
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

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5. The authors are grateful to the EPSRC, Trinity Hall, Cambridge (SJL), NEDO, Japan (JEP) and the Basque Government (JMM-A) for financial support.Google Scholar