THE INTERPRETATION OF THIN FILM SPHERICAL INDENTATION: MULTISCALE MATERIAL MODELING

D. Esqu-de los Ojos, J. Alcal, R. Dalmau, J. Oenek daniel.esque@upc.edu, jorge.alcala@upc.edu

GRICCA-EUETIB. Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Comte dUrgell 187. Barcelona 08036, Spain.

Abstract
The purpose of this investigation is to understand the influence of an elastic substrate upon the contact response of a soft fcc thin-film oriented in different crystallographic directions. In doing so, the archetypical copper-silicon system is assumed. Crystal plasticity finite element simulations of Berkovich indentations in bulk single crystals are performed to provide a benchmark against which thin-film indentation can be compared. Copper single crystals are modeled through a crystal plasticity framework while the silicon substrates are taken to remain elastically anisotropic during indentation.

Summary
The influence of the stiffer silicon substrate upon the thin-film indentation behavior varies depending on the following factors: (i) The crystalline orientation of the film with respect to the indentation loading axis; (ii) The cross hardening description of the film, essentially capturing the specific interactions between dislocations gliding in different intersecting planes; (iii) The thin-film thickness. In these lines, it is found that in specific loading orientations, such as the (011) and (111) directions, plastic flow is facilitated along the thinfilm thickness, leading to an early raise in hardness. The role of the dislocation interactions essentially affect upon the interplay between the thin-film and the substrate because stronger cross hardening interactions result in smaller plastic zone sizes that only reach the substrate at greater indenter penetrations.

Molecular Dynamics
1 3

Results
Influence of the normalized penetration depth ratio (hs/ht), where hs is the penetration of the tip and ht is the thickness _ of the film, upon hardness (p). The results are from crystal plasticity simulations of Berkovich indentation with a film thickness of 16 mm.

4
1
a/D= 0.18

Bulk

Film

The ratio between the critical penetration depth and the thickness of the film (hc/ht) at which departure from a constant hardness value is observed depends on the crystallographic orientation of the thin-film.

2
a/D= 0.22

2
3
a/D= 0.25

Copper film: Plane indented (001)

Copper film: Plane indented (011)

Dislocation density fields developed during Berkovich indentation of the three copper-silicon systems for a given hs/ht of 0.25. It is noticed that for the (001) indented plane, plastic flow of material along the indentation axis is precluded due to the configuration of slip directions, favoring the outwards spreading of plasticity. On the contrary, for the (011) and (111) indented planes, plastic flow along the indentation axis is facilitated precisely because of the availability of slip systems oriented along the thickness.

Variation of Youngs modulus (E) with hs/ht. E is obtained through the unloading stage of P-hs curves at different ratios of penetrated thin-film through the so-called Sneddons relation.

Copper film: Plane indented (111)

Comparison between the load (P) penetration depth (hs) curves for bulk single crystals and thin-films.

It is noticed that E increases as penetration proceeds in the film. Dashed lines show the tendency for the variation of Youngs modulus with normalized penetration depth ratio hs/ht. Note that the linear extrapolation to hs/ht = 0 does not allow extraction of the actual E in the copper film as inferred through Sneddons relation in a bulk crystal with identical orientation.
Complementary References
1.- Chen, X., Vlassak, J.J. Numerical study on the measurement of thin film mechanical properties by means of nanoindentation. J. Mater. Res. 2001. Vol. 16, pp. 2974 2982. 2.- Casals, O., Ocensek, J., Alcal, J. Crystal plasticity finite element simulations of pyramidal indentation in copper single crystals. Acta Mater. 2007. Vol. 55, pp. 55 68. 3.- Alcal, J. Casals, O., Ocensek, J. Micromechanics of pyramidal indentation in fcc metals: Single crystal plasticity finite element analysis. J. Mech. Phys. Solids. 2008. Vol. 56, pp. 3277 3303. 4.- Alcal, J., Esqu-de los Ojos, D. Rodrguez, S.A. The role of crystalline anisotropy in mechanical property extractions through Berkovich indentation. J. Mater. Res. 2009. Vol. 3, pp. 1235 1244.

It is seen that the substrate influences the contact response at smaller penetrations than those encountered exclusively through hardness measurements. Notice that substrate effects become noticeable at a 10% penetration (hs/ht = 0.10).