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. 2013 Oct 11;6(10):4505-4513.
doi: 10.3390/ma6104505.

Mechanical Properties of Cu₂O Thin Films by Nanoindentation

Sheng-Rui Jian  1 , Guo-Ju Chen  2 , Wei-Min Hsu  3
Affiliations

Mechanical Properties of Cu₂O Thin Films by Nanoindentation

Sheng-Rui Jian et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

In this study, the structural and nanomechanical properties of Cu₂O thin films are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nanoindentation techniques. The Cu₂O thin films are deposited on the glass substrates with the various growth temperatures of 150, 250 and 350 °C by using radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The XRD results show that Cu₂O thin films are predominant (111)-oriented, indicating a well ordered microstructure. In addition, the hardness and Young's modulus of Cu₂O thin films are measured by using a Berkovich nanoindenter operated with the continuous contact stiffness measurements (CSM) option. Results indicated that the hardness and Young's modulus of Cu₂O thin films decreased as the growth temperature increased from 150 to 350 °C. Furthermore, the relationship between the hardness and films grain size appears to closely follow the Hall-Petch equation.

Keywords: AFM; Cu2O thin film; SEM; XRD; hardness; nanoindentation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of Cu2O thin films deposited at various growth temperatures of 150 °C, 250 °C and 350 °C, respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) image of Cu2O thin film deposited at the growth temperature of 350 °C. The inset figure shows the corresponding cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) A typical load-displacement curve for Cu2O thin films deposited at 350 °C. (b) The hardness-displacement curves. (c) Young’s modulus-displacement curves for Cu2O thin films deposited at various growth temperatures.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Plot of the experimental data of hardness versus the grain size. The dashed line is a fit to the data using the Hall-Petch equation with the form of H(D) = 1.39 + 64.46 D−1/2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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