The nanoscratch hardness of a gold–nickel nanocrystalline nanolaminate at high strain rate

Jankowski, Alan F.; Ahmed, Hoda S.

doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2012.03.011

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 33 publications

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“…Additionally, high currents passed through the switch can lead to micro-welding from Joule heating, followed by detrimental deformation when the contact is broken [9,10]. In order to increase the lifetime of these contacts, numerous different techniques are used to increase the wear resistance by increasing the hardness of Au: grain size reduction [11][12][13][14], addition of solid solution impurities [3,13,[15][16][17], deposition of nanolaminate structures [18][19][20], or the introduction of small oxide particles [15,21,22]. However, all of these strengthening techniques can substantially increase the resistivity of Au.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical and electrical performance of thermally stable Au–ZnO films

Schoeppner

Goeke²,

Moody

et al. 2015

Acta Materialia

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The mechanical properties, thermal stability, and electrical performance of Au-ZnO composite thin films are determined in this work. The co-deposition of ZnO with Au via physical vapor deposition leads to grain refinement over that of pure Au; the addition of 0.1 vol.% ZnO reduces the as-grown grain size by over 30%. The hardness of the as-grown films doubles with 2% ZnO, from 1.8 to 3.6 GPa as measured by nanoindentation. Films with ZnO additions greater than 0.5% show no significant grain growth after annealing at 350°C, while pure gold and smaller additions do exhibit grain growth and subsequent mechanical softening. Films with 1% and 2% ZnO show a decrease of approximately 50% in electrical resistivity and no change in hardness after annealing. A model accounting for both changes in the interface structure between dispersed ZnO particles and the Au matrix captures the changes in mechanical and electrical resistivity. The addition of 1-2% ZnO co-deposited with Au provides a method to create mechanically hard and thermally stable films with a resistivity less than 80 nO-m. These results complement previous studies of other alloying systems, suggesting oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) gold shows a desirable hardness-resistivity relationship that is relatively independent of the particular ODS chemistry.

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