Deformations, electron microscopy

In general, the coatings are composed of non-ductile materials, harder than the metal itself. When submitted to the cavitational microhammering, soft materials, e.g., alkali metals, undergo permanent plastic deformation. Electron microscopy... 

Perhaps the most significant complication in the interpretation of nanoscale adhesion and mechanical properties measurements is the fact that the contact sizes are below the optical limit ( 1 t,im). Macroscopic adhesion studies and mechanical property measurements often rely on optical observations of the contact, and many of the contact mechanics models are formulated around direct measurement of the contact area or radius as a function of experimentally controlled parameters, such as load or displacement. In studies of colloids, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been used to view particle/surface contact sizes from the side to measure contact radius [3]. However, such a configuration is not easily employed in AFM and nanoindentation studies, and undesirable surface interactions from charging or contamination may arise. For adhesion studies (e.g. Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) [4] and probe-tack tests [5,6]), the probe/sample contact area is monitored as a function of load or displacement. This allows evaluation of load/area or even stress/strain response [7] as well as comparison to and development of contact mechanics theories. Area measurements are also important in traditional indentation experiments, where hardness is determined by measuring the residual contact area of the deformation optically [8J. For micro- and nanoscale studies, the dimensions of both the contact and residual deformation (if any) are below the optical limit. 

Carr and his co-workers [86C01, 87C01] have shown that transmission electron microscopy is a powerful tool in characterizing linear and higher-order defect configurations and their densities on shock-modified rutile, alumina, aluminum nitride, and zirconia [84H02]. The principal impediment to detailed characterization of shock-formed defects is their very high concentrations, which prevent identification of specific deformation features except in... 

Usually, the molecular strands are coiled in the glassy polymer. They become stretched when a crack arrives and starts to build up the deformation zone. Presumably, strain softened polymer molecules from the bulk material are drawn into the deformation zone. This microscopic surface drawing mechanism may be considered to be analogous to that observed in lateral craze growth or in necking of thermoplastics. Chan, Donald and Kramer [87] observed by transmission electron microscopy how polymer chains were drawn into the fibrils at the craze-matrix-interface in PS films [92]. One explanation, the hypothesis of devitrification by Gent and Thomas [89] was set forth as early as 1972. 

Glad [37] studied the micro deformations of thin films prepared from DGE-BA/MDA by electron microscopy. His results are also shown in Fig. 7.5. The deformation of the sample with high strand density was small and consequently its image in the EM rather blurred. Therefore, the result on Mc = 0.5 kg/mol should perhaps have been omitted. 

The mean sizes of windows, dw, and contacting cross sections, Dpc can be measured during analysis of the electron microscopy images as the relation of the first statistical moment to the zero one the sizes of dw can also be measured by adsorption methods (see Section 9.3). The direct interrelation between dw and, for example, Z)pc, is determined in view of a used model (e.g., in the framework of a model of isotropic deforming lattice of particles). Besides, also possible are correlations type of dwi dCi that relate the possible size of a cavity dCj to corresponding sizes of windows dWi from the cavity to the neighboring cavities. 

Tip-sample interactions 36, 195—210 force and deformation 37 local modification of sample wavefunctions 195 uncertainty principle, and 197 wavefunction modification 37 Topografiner 44—47 Topographic images 122, 125 Transient response 261, 262 Transition probability 67 Transmission electron microscopy 43... 

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and birefringence studies of strained and/ or fractured epoxies have revealed more direct experimental evidence that molecular flow can occur in these glasses. Films of DGEBA-DETA ( 11 wt.- % DETA) epoxies, 1 pm thick, were strained directly in the electron microscope and the deformation processes were observed in bright-field TEM 73 110). Coarse craze fibrils yielded in-homogeneously by a process that involved the movement of indeformable 6-9 tan diameter, highly crosslinked molecular domains past one another. The material between such domains yielded and became thinner as plastic flow occurred. 

Transmission electron microscopy evidence shows little or no dislocations in super-plastically deformed material. 

In uniformly strained materials, deformation structures can be readily observed using transmission electron microscopy. However, it is much more difficult to prepare a similar sample where the deformation is more localized, as is the case of nanoindentation. Recently this situation has been revolutionized by the development of focused ion beam techniques for semiconductor processing, so that it is possible to select the region to be thinned to within 100 nm (Overwijk et al., 1993 Saka, 1998). 

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