Fracture force analysis at the interface of Pd and SrTiO3

The objective of this work is to develop an experimental indentation based method to determine the fracture force at the interface of Pd thin films and SrTiO3 perovskite substrate. This paper reports on the results obtained for indentation into Pd thin films which were deposited in various thicknesses from 20 nm to 200 nm under vacuum and 300 degrees C substrate temperature by an electron beam physical vapor deposition. Initially, the relation between grain size, elastic module and hardness was considered as a function of film thickness. Thereafter, in developing new method, oscillating indentation was performed with different applied forces and oscillating times in order to measure the critical fracture force in each thickness. The effect of oscillating time on plastically deformed regions surrounding an indentation was schematically explained in conjunction with variation of oscillating time to determine the interfacial properties of the Pd thin film. Furthermore, the accuracy of the critical fracture force was ensured by applied force versus piling up height plot. The method is validated experimentally for the soft thin films over the hard substrate. However, further study would be essential to measure the film adhesion by means of fracture force at the interface. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.