Relaxation mechanisms in a gold thin film on a compliant substrate as revealed by X-ray diffraction
Résumé
The fact that the polymeric substrate does not relax after a load jump allows realizing an original relaxation experiment of a metallic thin film. Thanks to the combination of two strain probes done at different scales, namely, X-ray synchrotron diffraction and digital image correlation techniques, the apparent activation volumes are monitored and their values help to capture leading deformation mechanisms in thin films. Such experiments have been performed on a nanocrystalline gold thin film, and deformation mechanisms involved during a biaxial straining have been distinguished between different texture components.