A transmission electron microscopy study of the deformation behavior underneath nanoindents in nano-scale Al-TiN multilayered composites
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
Nano-scale multilayered Al-TiN composites were deposited with DC magnetron sputtering technique in two different layer thickness ratios - Al:TiN = 1:1 and Al:TiN = 9:1. The Al layer thickness varied from 2 nm to 450 nm. The hardness of the samples was tested by nanoindentation using a Berkovich tip. Cross-sectional Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) was carried out on samples extracted with Focused Ion Beam (FIB) from below the nanoindents. This paper presents the results of the hardness tests in the Al-TiN multilayers with the two different thickness ratios and the observations from the cross-sectional TEM studies of the regions underneath the indents. These studies showed remarkable strength in the multilayers, as well as some very interesting deformation behavior in the TiN layers at extremely small length scales, where the hard TiN layers undergo co-deformation with the Al layers.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 971322
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-09-06253; LA-UR-09-6253; TRN: US201004%%84
- Journal Information:
- Philosophical Magazine A, Journal Name: Philosophical Magazine A
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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