Abstract
We developed an experimental technique for evaluating fatigue crack propagation properties of freestanding nano-films and conducted tensile and fatigue crack propagation experiments for about 500-nm-thick freestanding copper (Cu) films. We employed a sacrificial etching method for fabricating freestanding metallic nano-film specimens. A piezoelectric-actuator with long stroke and a load cell for small load were used for applying cyclic loading to nano-films. We developed original jigs for handling and aligning the nano-film specimens. Focused ion beam (FIB) was employed to introduce a single side-edge-notch in the nano-film specimens for fatigue crack propagation experiments. The results of tensile experiments revealed that the nano-films have resistance to plastic deformation comparable to cold-rolled Cu bulk, but have lower ductility. The results of fatigue crack propagation experiments revealed that a fatigue crack stably propagates in the nano-film by a uniaxial cyclic loading with constant maximum stress before unstable fracture. The fatigue crack propagation rate da/dN of the Cu nano-films is higher than that of Cu bulk counterpart in higher stress intensity factor range, ΔK. Fatigue crack started to propagate from the notch tip below the threshold value of Cu bulk with coarse grains, and the Cu nano-films show similar fatigue crack propagation properties to Cu bulk with ultrafine grains in lower ΔK. Morphology of the fracture surface transited from microstructure-sensitive rough surface to microstructure-insensitive ductile surface or chisel point fracture as fatigue crack propagated. This suggests that the dominant fracture mechanism changes from the accumulation of cyclic deformation to the monotonic tensile-dominant fracture.
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