Effective Use of Focused Ion Beam (FIB) in Investigating Fundamental Mechanical Properties of Metals at the Sub-Micron S
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0983-LL08-03
Effective Use of Focused Ion Beam (FIB) in Investigating Fundamental Mechanical Properties of Metals at the Sub-Micron Scale Julia R. Greer EMDL, PARC, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA, 94304
ABSTRACT Recent advances in the 2-beam focused ion beams technology (FIB) have enabled researchers to not only perform high-precision nanolithography and micro-machining, but also to apply these novel fabrication techniques to investigating a broad range of materials’ properties at the submicron and nano-scales. In our work, the FIB is utilized in manufacturing of sub-micron cylinders, or nano-pillars, as well as of TEM cross-sections to directly investigate plasticity of metals at these small length scales. Single crystal nano-pillars, ranging in diameter between 300 nm and 870 nm, were fabricated in the FIB from epitaxial gold films on MgO substrates and subsequently compressed using a Nanoindenter fitted with a custom-fabricated diamond flat punch. We show convincingly that flow stresses strongly depend on the sample size, as some of our smaller specimens were found to plastically deform in uniaxial compression at stresses as high as 600 MPa, a value ~25 times higher than for bulk gold. We believe that these high strengths are hardened by dislocation starvation. In this mechanism, once the sample is small enough, the mobile dislocations have a higher probability of annihilating at a nearby free surface than of multiplying and being pinned by other dislocations. Contrary to this, if the dislocations are trapped inside the specimen by a coating, the strengthening mechanism is expected to be different. Here we present for the first time the comparison of plastic deformation of passivated and unpassivated single crystal specimens at the sub-micron scale. The role of free surfaces is investigated by comparing stress results of both asFIB’d, annealed, and alumina-passivated pillars. Preliminary results show that ALD-coated pillars exhibit much higher flow stresses at equivalent sizes and strains compared with the uncoated samples. We also found that while FIB damage during pillar fabrication might account for a small portion of the strength increase, it is not the major contributor. INTRODUCTION In the last decade or so, the Focused Ion Beam has become one of the most widely used tools for sample fabrication, testing, and imaging[1],[2],[3]. This multidisciplinary tool is applicable to a broad range of projects like fabrication and testing of MEMS, sensors, microactuators, microfluidic devices, etc. With some care, FIB can be utilized in fabrication of intricate 3-D structures by both etching of the starting material and by deposition of metals from gas phase. One of the key contributions of FIB’s availability for mechanical experiments is that it bridges the experimental length scale with the computational results, where sample sizes are generally specified in a number of atoms[4]. One of the areas where the community has benefited greatly from using the FIB is mechanics. Until recently, mechanical deformation
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