The influence of stacking fault energy on ductile fracture micromorphology

The influence of stacking fault energy on microvoid coalescence in pure materials has been studied. It was shown that as a material's stacking fault energy (SFE) decreased, the extent of microvoid coalescence that occurred during ductile fracture also decreased. The decrease of microvoid coalescence in low SFE materials was attributed to a hindrance in the development of dislocation cells associated with the restricted motion of dislocations. In pure materials, microvoids are believed to initiate and grow along dislocation cell walls formed during deformation. As such, the absence or scarcity of cells in lower SFE materials limits the formation of these voids during ductile fracture.     

An energy method to analyze through thickness thin film fracture during indentation

Nanoindentation was utilized to induce fracture of brittle thin oxide films on compliant substrates. The energies were calculated from integrating the resulting load-depth curves from indentation. The total energy applied to the system is a superposition of the energy to deform the substrate and the energy to fracture the film. The applied energy to deform the compliant substrate was separated from the energy applied to the film/substrate system resulting in the energy to fracture the film. The energy for fracture was then converted to a crack extension force and a stress intensity using linear elastic fracture mechanics. The toughness of thermally grown aluminum oxides is between 0.37 and 0.83 MPa m^0.5, and tends to decrease as film thickness increases over the range of 25 to 63 nm.     

Preparation of ZnAPO-34 films on alumina substrates

The hydrothermal synthesis of ZnAPO-34 films supported on alumina substrates was reported in this paper. Synthesis parameters of the films were extensively examined. Organic content, water content, alumina source, and supports played important roles in the syntheses of ZnAPO-34 films. The best synthesis composition was found to be 0.4ZnO : 0.8Al₂O₃ : 1P₂O₅ : 2TEAOH : 225–550H₂O with aluminum isopropoxide as alumina source. However, repeated syntheses were necessary to synthesize contineous ZnAPO-34 films on both nonporous an porous alumina supports.     

Preparation of a transparent alumina film doped with fluorescence dye and its energy transfer laser emission

A transparent alumina film was prepared from an aqueous sol by the sol-gel process. Changes in the fluorescence of 7-azaindole were monitored during the processing from the aqueous sol to the dried gel by dehydration. Coumarin 1, which is insoluble in water, and an anionic dye, uranin, were doped into the film by utilization of surface-active reagents, Triton X-100 and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide respectively. This doped film exhibited energy-transfer-type laser emission by nitrogen laser pumping.     

片状氧化铝晶种对氧化铝陶瓷断裂韧性的影响

以片状氧化铝晶种作为第二相,采用无压烧结制备了氧化铝陶瓷,分析了片状氧化铝含量对氧化铝陶瓷微观结构的影响,采用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）观察分析试样的断口形貌;采用压痕法计算试样的断裂韧性（KIC）值;研究了不同含量的晶种引入量对氧化铝陶瓷断裂韧性的影响。结果表明烧结温度为1575℃时,相对致密度可以达到96.7%;片状氧化铝晶种的引入能够显著提高氧化铝陶瓷的断裂韧性;其片晶的裂纹偏转、片晶拔出效应等增韧机制发挥了主导作用;随着片状氧化铝含量的提高,氧化铝陶瓷的力学性能逐渐提高,当掺杂含量达到35%（质量分数）时,KIC达到6.4MPa.m1/2,当含量继续增加,KIC呈现逐渐降低的趋势。     

Self-organised growth on strained substrates: the influence of anisotropic strain, surface energy and surface diffusivity

The morphological stability of coherent thin films subjected to unequal in-plane biaxial strains is investigated to determine how non-uniform strain states can be used to influence the growth of self-organised island nanostructures. The evolution via surface diffusion is modelled analytically using a small perturbation approach and allows for anisotropies in the surface energy and the surface diffusivity. It is shown that conventional uniform biaxial epitaxy does not provide a driving force towards a particular wavelength as is popularly assumed. This reduces the potential for highly self-organised growth. It is predicted that improvements in island size, shape and spatial distributions can be obtained under certain conditions of anisotropic strain, surface energy and surface diffusivity. This increase in uniformity would be beneficial to the construction of practical devices. Enhancing surface diffusivity anisotropy via the application of an applied strain could offer the most realistic opportunity for controlling the growth of self-assembled structures this way.     

Multifunctional substrates of thin porous alumina for cell biosensors

We have fabricated anodic porous alumina from thin films (100/500 nm) of aluminium deposited on technological substrates of silicon/glass, and investigated the feasibility of this material as a surface for the development of analytical biosensors aiming to assess the status of living cells. To this goal, porous alumina surfaces with fixed pitch and variable pore size were analyzed for various functionalities. Gold coated (about 25 nm) alumina revealed surface enhanced Raman scattering increasing with the decrease in wall thickness, with factor up to values of approximately 10⁴ with respect to the flat gold surface. Bare porous alumina was employed for micro-patterning and observation via fluorescence images of dye molecules, which demonstrated the surface capability for a drug-loading device. NIH-3T3 fibroblast cells were cultured in vitro and examined after 2 days since seeding, and no significant (P > 0.05) differences in their proliferation were observed on porous and non-porous materials. The effect on cell cultures of pore size in the range of 50–130 nm—with pore pitch of about 250 nm—showed no significant differences in cell viability and similar levels in all cases as on a control substrate. Future work will address combination of all above capabilities into a single device.     

Thin film fracture: Ti-coating-Be-substrate bond failure

The role of microstructure in the fracture of the bond between vapour-deposited thin film coatings and substrates will be modelled to a first approximation using classical fracture mechanics principles. Vapour-deposited coatings are composed of a grain structure with varying orientations. The effect of differing degrees of texture on the bond strength between the coating and its substrate will be considered in this analysis. Incorporated in stress calculations will be the residual stresses arising from the thermal contraction of the coating, an applied tensile stress normal to the coating surface (as that in an adherence pull test) and the critical stress needed for coating-substrate bond failure.     

The dielectric properties of alumina substrates for microelectronic packaging

The dielectric characterization of alumina substrate materials used in high-performance microelectronic packaging is described. These materials included both pure and impure polycrystalline substrates and, as a reference standard, pure and chromium-doped single crystals of alumina. For each material the permittivity () and dielectric loss () has been measured over a frequency range of 0.5 kHz to 10 MHz, at room temperature, and correlated with the structure and composition as determined by supplementary techniques. At room temperature the pure substrates show the frequency independence of both and , characteristic of pure single-crystal material. The permittivity (= 10.1) agrees closely with the average of the anisotropic values for the single crystal but the dielectric loss is an order of magnitude higher than in the single crystal, giving tan 1.5 × 10^–3. The impure substrates compared with the pure, show a small increase in and a marked, frequency-dependent increase in dielectric loss. Measurements have also been made in both the high- and low-temperature ranges (i.e. 20 to 600 ° C and 77 to 293 K, respectively) in order to establish the variation of permittivity with temperature and frequency. At temperatures below 200 °C the temperature coefficient of permittivity, [( –1)( + 2)]^–1 (/T) _p is about 9 × 10^–6 K^–1 for the pure materials but this increases rapidly with impurity addition.     

Generation of isothermal spreading data and interfacial energy data for liquid reactive metals on ceramic substrates: The copper-titanium/alumina system

The sessile drop technique is frequently used to evaluate the wettability and spreadability of liquid metals on ceramic substrates. In this study, the spreading kinetics of copper-20 wt% titanium alloys on polycrystalline alumina were evaluated based on measurements of spreading radius versus time. The process of spreading was monitored by anin situ video recording system. The tests were performed using three different initial metal configurations. It was found that conventional sessile drop testing configurations cannot be used to generate isothermal spreading kinetics data because of significant spreading during the heat-up cycle from the solidus temperature to the test temperature. An improved sessile drop technique was developed which eliminated the non-isothermal experience by introducing the liquid copper to the solid titanium/alumina at the desired testing temperature. Using this technique, only a few seconds of data were lost (while the liquid copper dissolved the solid titanium). Because very limited interfacial energy data exist for the copper-titanium/alumina system, especially at higher titanium concentrations, the equilibrium contact angle, the solid-liquid interfacial energy, and the work of adhesion from 1000 to 1300 °C are also presented.     

Sol-gel fabrication of compact, crack-free alumina film

Compact, crack-free alumina film was fabricated using an alumina sol with a high Al₂O₃ content. With the addition of ethylacetoacetate (CH₃COCH₂COOC₂H₅, EAcAc), the stable sol could be prepared with a molar ratio of aluminum sec-butoxide (Al(O-sec-Bu)₃, ASB) to water up to 1:25. It was found that EAcAc could notably decrease the surface tension of the liquid in the gel pores. The EAcAc modification layer on the colloidal particle retarded greatly the densification of the Al₂O₃ gel film and provided a long-lasting structural relaxation during heating. Therefore, the formation of cracks was effectively prevented in this alumina material. The alumina gel film contained a high Al₂O₃ content and there was a rather small mass loss during sintering. The critical thickness of Al₂O₃ sol-gel film was eight times higher than that could be achieved via the general sol-gel route and a film thicker than 0.8 μm was prepared by a single-step dipping operation.     

Effect of residual stresses on the strength and fracture energy of the brittle film: Multiple cracking analysis

The aim of this paper was to address the effect of the residual stresses within the brittle film on the substrate on the film strength, fracture energy, and interfacial shear strength (IFSS). Special analyses were performed on the SiO_x film/polyethulene terephthalate substrate systems. The residual stresses were evaluated by using the curvature method. The film strength, fracture energy, and IFSS were estimated on the basis of the multiple cracking analyses. In the multiple cracking analyses, the system was subjected to the combination of the residual stresses and the unidirectionally applied stress. Results showed that the relationship between the crack density in the film and the applied strain can be predicted by adopting the energy criterion on the basis of the knowledge on the residual stress distributions in the film segment. The film strength and fracture energy for the initiation of film cracking were almost proportional to the compressive residual stresses in the film. With increasing the compressive residual stresses within the film, the IFSS also increased.     

Effect of pre-existing oxide film on the electrochemical fabrication of nanoporous alumina film

Different thickness of barrier-type oxide film was intentionally grown on the Al metal surface and the effect of barrier film on the formation of nanoporous aluminum oxide film during anodization was investigated to control the nanopore structure. Analysis of potential transients during anodization indicated that anodic oxide film is initially overlaid on the barrier film but the anodic film is more facile to dissolve than barrier film. As the thickness of barrier film increases, both nanopore diameter and density decrease but the pore length is irrespective of barrier-film thickness.     

Microstructure-based damage and fracture modelling of alumina coatings

Effect of microstructure on damage and fracture evolution due to elastic anisotropy in alumina coatings and a mismatch in thermal expansion of the coating and substrate are examined by means of numerical simulations. Random microstructures of alumina coatings with different porosity levels are generated by the Monte Carlo method based on the Poisson distribution of the number of microdefects (voids/cracks) and their stereological size-shape distributions in plasma-sprayed ceramic coatings. The damage evolution law extended to complex stress states is applied to damage analysis. Failure mechanisms for coatings under uniform thermal loading are investigated with an explicit account for various microstructures.