Microtensile Tests Using In Situ Atomic Force Microscopy

In recent years a new field in the micromechanical characterization of materials has emerged. Researchers started to integrate atomic force microscopes (AFM) into microtensile tests. This allowed to investigate surface deformation of layers with thicknesses in the range of micrometers. In the first part of this article experiments on organic samples are presented followed by developments on anorganic specimens. In the second part of the paper latest developments at the Center of Mechanics of ETH Zurich are presented. The setup allows to monitor crack growth with micrometer resolution. At the same time forces can be measured in the millinewton range. Specimens are made from photodefinable polyimide. The stress-crack- length diagrams of two experiments are presented which enables to identify different stages of crack growth and therefore of fracture behaviour. Finally, possible extensions of the setup employing digital image correlation (DIC) are envisioned by analyzing the displacement field around the crack tip.

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