October 2006

Journal

Hardness enhancement in nanocrystalline tantalum thin films

By:
Nieh, Tai-Gang ; Yang, Bing ; Zhang, Ming ; Chu, Jinn
Journal Name:
Scripta Materialia
Page Number:
1227-1230
Volume:
54
Issue Number:
7
Publication Date:
October 24, 2006

Abstract

Nanocrystalline tantalum thin film was prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on a glass substrate. Structure and mechanical properties of the as-deposited thin film were investigated by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and nanoindentation. The salient feature in the present tantalum thin film with a grain size of 76.5 nm is the remarkable enhancement of hardness, about one order of magnitude higher than that of bulk coarse-grained tantalum.