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Nanoindentation of high-purity vapor deposited lithium films: A mechanistic rationalization of the transition from diffusion to dislocation-mediated flow

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Abstract

Nanoindentation experiments performed in high-purity vapor deposited lithium films at 31 °C reveal a strain rate and length scale dependence in the stress at which pop-in type events signal an abrupt transition from diffusion to dislocation-mediated flow. The stress level at which the transition to dislocation-mediated flow occurs varies with the strain rate and ranges from 88 to 208 times larger than the nominal yield strength of bulk, polycrystalline lithium. Variation in the indentation strain rate reveals the relationship between the stress required to initiate the transition and the length scale at which the transition occurs follows the power-law relation, hardness × depth1.17 = 1.545 N/m0.83, where the magnitude of the exponent and constant reflect the defect structure of the film. A rationalization of the transition is provided through direct comparisons between the measured cumulative distribution function (CDF) and the CDF hypothesized for the activation of a Frank-Read source.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was sponsored jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Battery Materials Research program (managed by Tien Duong) and by TARDEC, the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center. E.G.H. is grateful for start-up funding from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Michigan Technological University. V.T.’s contributions were financially supported through the MSE department’s McArthur Internship program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, 49931, USA

    Erik G. Herbert, Stephen A. Hackney & Violet Thole

  2. Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 37830, USA

    Nancy J. Dudney

  3. International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, Hyderabad, Telangana, 500005, India

    P. Sudharshan Phani

Authors
  1. Erik G. Herbert
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  2. Stephen A. Hackney
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  3. Violet Thole
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  4. Nancy J. Dudney
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  5. P. Sudharshan Phani
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Correspondence to Erik G. Herbert.

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This paper has been selected as an Invited Feature Paper.

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Herbert, E.G., Hackney, S.A., Thole, V. et al. Nanoindentation of high-purity vapor deposited lithium films: A mechanistic rationalization of the transition from diffusion to dislocation-mediated flow. Journal of Materials Research 33, 1361–1368 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.85

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.85

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