A novel nanoscratch device compatible with commercial microscope for in situ tests of materials’ mechanics

Ning Li,Shan Dong,Yue Shi,Hui Wang,Hongwei Zhao,Peng Zhang,Mingjun Jin,Yanchao Liu

doi:10.1177/1687814016646933

Abstract

For exploring the mechanical properties and behaviors of new materials, a novel in situ nanoscratch device compatible with commercial microscope has been developed. The developed device with specific dimensions of 178 mm × 165 mm × 78 mm includes the coarse positioning module, the precise feed module, the measurement module, and the control module. Integrating the servo motor, worm and gears, ball screw, flexure hinge, and piezoelectric actuator, the device can realize macroscopical coarse positioning motion and precise feed motion. A novel arrangement of load sensor and indenter with no middle chain is used to reduce the measurement error. Closed-loop control system is established to guarantee the accuracy of load and displacement control. Mechanical properties of the developed device have been proved by calibrating the load sensor, finite element analysis of flexure hinge, and verifying the output performance. The in situ nanoscratch test has been conducted on the single crystal copper. The captured images and finite element analysis prove the feasibility and accuracy of the developed device.

Highlights

In view of the rapid development of the material preparation industry, more and more new materials emerge in endlessly
Nanoscratch method has been utilized in scientific researches with the materials like superconductor, nanocomposite, and superthin films
The mechanical and tribological properties of color filter (CF) and thin-film transistor (TFT) glasses were studied by Won et al.[15]

Summary

Introduction

In view of the rapid development of the material preparation industry, more and more new materials emerge in endlessly. Indentation method has become a powerful lossless testing approach to evaluate the mechanical properties of various materials. It has extremely wide applications in scientific fields, such as materials engineering, semiconductor, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)/nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), metal alloy, and thin films.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] other research methods are needed besides indentation. Dias et al.[13] and Jurelo et al.[14] have conducted experiments on lamellar superconductor with the nanoscratch method, and they found that tribological properties were different due to the differences of a(b)cplane structure.

Objectives

Results

Conclusion