Microscale bending plasticity and fracture behavior of amorphous aluminum oxide films

TL;DR

This study investigates microscale bending plasticity and fracture behavior of amorphous aluminum oxide films deposited by different methods, revealing the significant influence of defects and deposition techniques on their mechanical properties.

Contribution

It is the first to demonstrate bending plasticity in PLD and ALD amorphous alumina films at microscale using in situ microcantilever experiments.

Findings

PLD a-Al2O3 microcantilevers exhibit ductile behavior with strains >10%.

ALD a-Al2O3 shows both elastic brittle fracture and bending plasticity, depending on defect distribution.

All sputter-deposited a-Al2O3 microcantilevers fail elastically with a fracture toughness of 3.1 MPa·m^0.5.

Abstract

Recent work has demonstrated microscale compressive plasticity in pulse laser deposited (PLD) amorphous alumina (a-Al2O3). This work explores microscale bending plasticity and fracture behavior of a-Al2O3 films deposited using three different methods-PLD, atomic layer deposition (ALD) and sputter deposition (SD). The three deposition routes produced amorphous films with similar stoichiometric compositions. We demonstrate, for the first time, bending plasticity in PLD and ALD a-Al2O3 films at microscale using in situ microcantilever bending experiments at room temperature. All tested PLD a-Al2O3 microcantilevers showed substantial ductile behavior in bending by accommodating total strains >10% without fracture. Half of the tested ALD a-Al2O3 cantilevers exhibited elastic brittle fracture while the other half showed bending plasticity, indicating that the observed deformation behavior is strongly influenced by the presence and distribution of defects within the tested volume. All SD a-Al2O3 microcantilevers showed elastic brittle failure attributed to their columnar growth microstructure. The microscale bending response was found to be highly dependent on the film deposition method highlighting the role of defects in suppressing plasticity mechanisms. Notched microcantilever bending tests on all three films showed brittle failure with similar fracture toughness value of 3.1 +/- 0.2 MPa.m0.5, effectively ruling out any localized crack tip plasticity. These findings underscore the importance of minimizing defects during fabrication in order to develop damage tolerant amorphous oxides. Nonetheless, the observation of bending plasticity in both PLD and ALD microcantilevers, which include a tensile stress component as well, suggests that the plastic deformation mechanisms in amorphous alumina are more general and are not exclusively governed by the deposition method.