Nano Indentation Inspection of the Mechanical Properties of Gold Nitride Thin Films

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Metadata	Details
Publication Date	2015-08-25
Journal	DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
Authors	A. Verdyan, Ya. M. Soǐfer, J. Azoulay, M. Martino, Anna Paola Caricato
Institutions	Innovation Engineering (Italy), Hadassah Academic College
Citations	1

Abstract

The morphology and the local mechanical properties of gold nitride thin films were studied by atomic force microscope (AFM). Gold nitride films were deposited for the first time on silicon substrate without any buffer layer at room temperature by reactive pulsed laser ablation deposition (RPLD). The films were fabricated on (100) Si wafers by RPLD technique in which KrF excimer laser was used to ablate a gold target in N2 atmosphere (0.1 GPa-100 Pa) and ambient temperature. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy inspections showed that the films were flat plane with rms roughness in the range of 35.1 nm-3.6 nm, depending on the deposition pressure. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS) used to detect the nitrogen concentration in the films, have revealed a composition close to Au3N. The film&apos;s hardness, Young’s modulus, and scratch resistance were evaluated by nanoindentation and nanoscratch techniques in which AFM equipped with a diamond tip mounted on a metal foil cantilever was used to indent and scratch the film. Thus we were able to measure the mechanical properties along with the topography of the films characterization down to nanometer scale. Indentation and scratch measurements yielded hardness values of 2 GPa-3 GPa and a Young&apos;s modulus value close to 100 GPa. The experimental data are processed according to Oilver and Phar theory and discussed in terms of grain size, boundaries and dislocation pinning.

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