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Room temperature stress relaxation in nanocrystalline Ni measured by micropillar compression and miniature tension

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Abstract

In this study, we report a micropillar stress relaxation technique employing a stable displacement-controlled, in-situ scanning electron microscope indenter, and unusually large micropillars to precisely measure stress relaxation in electroplated nanocrystalline Ni thin films. The observed stress relaxation is significant under constant displacement: even well below the 0.2% offset yield strength, the stresses relax by ∼4% within a minute; in the work hardening regime, stress relaxes by ∼9% in 1 min. A logarithmic fit of the relaxation curves is consistent with an Arrhenius thermal activation of plasticity and suggests an activation volume in the vicinity of ∼10 b3. The apparent and effective activation volumes diverge at lower strains, particularly in the “elastic” regime. These measurements are compared to similar measurements performed on free-standing thin film tensile coupons. Both methods yield similar results, thereby validating the applicability of pillar compression to capture time-dependent plasticity. To our knowledge, these are the first micropillar stress relaxation experiments on metals ever reported.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Funding by Strength-ABLE (EMPIR 14IND03), an EURAMET joint research project funded by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme, ERA-NET Plus, under Grant Agreement No. 217257 is gratefully acknowledged. Gaurav Mohanty, Aidan Taylor and Madoka Hasegawa would like to acknowledge funding from EMPA Postdoc program cofunded by FP7: Marie Curie Actions. BLB was funded by The United States Department of Energy, office of Basic Energy Science (BES).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Laboratory for Mechanics of Materials and Nanostructures, CH-3602, Thun, Switzerland

    Gaurav Mohanty, Juri Wehrs, Aidan Taylor, Madoka Hasegawa, Laetitia Philippe & Johann Michler

  2. Materials Science and Engineering Center, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87185, USA

    Brad L. Boyce

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  1. Gaurav Mohanty
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  2. Juri Wehrs
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  3. Brad L. Boyce
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  4. Aidan Taylor
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  6. Laetitia Philippe
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  7. Johann Michler
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Correspondence to Gaurav Mohanty.

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Mohanty, G., Wehrs, J., Boyce, B.L. et al. Room temperature stress relaxation in nanocrystalline Ni measured by micropillar compression and miniature tension. Journal of Materials Research 31, 1085–1095 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.101

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