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Mechanical properties of thermally evaporated germanium (Ge) and barium fluoride (BaF2) thin-films

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A Correction to this article was published on 14 February 2022

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Abstract

Elastic modulus and hardness of thin-films are critically important in determining the behaviour of free-standing actuatable microstructures. In this study, nanoindentation has been used to investigate the mechanical properties of thermally evaporated Ge and BaF2 thin-films. Nanoindentation experiments indicate that Ge and BaF2 thin-films are characterised by a reduced modulus of 95 ± 3 GPa and 33 ± 9 GPa, respectively, and hardness of 4.6 ± 0.4 GPa and 0.75 ± 0.4 GPa, respectively. The elastoplastic response of both thin-films was predominantly elastic for low indentation loads, but exhibited plasticity ≥ 60% for indentation loads approaching 8 mN. Indentation-induced creep deformation was found to be limited to ≤ 5%.

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Acknowledgments

This work used the facilities of the Western Australian node of the NCRIS-enabled Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), a company established under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy to provide nano- and micro-fabrication facilities for Australia’s researchers, and support from the Western Australian Government’s Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation. This research was supported financially by Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grants. The authors also thankfully acknowledge the facilities, the scientific and technical assistance of the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA), The University of Western Australia for the Scholarship for International Research Fees and The Microelectronics Research Group (MRG) for an Ad Hoc Postgraduate Scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia

    Gurpreet Singh Gill, Christopher Jones, Dhirendra Kumar Tripathi, Gino Putrino, K. K. M. B. Dilusha Silva, Lorenzo Faraone & Mariusz Martyniuk

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia

    Adrian Keating

  3. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS), The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

    Lorenzo Faraone & Mariusz Martyniuk

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  1. Gurpreet Singh Gill
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Gill, G.S., Jones, C., Tripathi, D.K. et al. Mechanical properties of thermally evaporated germanium (Ge) and barium fluoride (BaF2) thin-films. MRS Communications 12, 112–118 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43579-021-00149-2

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