Oxide glasses are an integral part of the modern world, but their usefulness can be limited by their characteristic brittleness at room temperature. We show that amorphous aluminum oxide can permanently deform without fracture at room temperature and high strain rate by a viscous creep mechanism. These thin-films can reach flow stress at room temperature and can flow plastically up to a total elongation of 100%, provided that the material is dense and free of geometrical flaws. Our study demonstrates a much higher ductility for an amorphous oxide at low temperature than previous observations. This discovery may facilitate the realization of damage-tolerant glass materials that contribute in new ways, with the potential to improve the mechanical resistance and reliability of applications such as electronic devices and batteries.

Long-term degradation effects of combined Cr-and Si-poisoning on the promising IT-SOFC cathode materials La 0.6 Sr 0.4 CoO 3-δ and La 2 NiO 4+δ were investigated at 700°C in dry and humid atmospheres for subsequent periods of 1000 hours using dcconductivity relaxation measurements. Degradation-induced changes in chemical composition and morphology of the contaminated sample surfaces were studied by atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy and wavelength dispersive X-ray analysis. Upon exposure to humid, Cr-and Si-containing gas flows both materials exhibit a strong decrease of the chemical surface exchange coefficient of oxygen by a factor 110 and 40 for La 0.6 Sr 0.4 CoO 3-δ and La 2 NiO 4+δ , respectively, which can be attributed to the formation of Cr-containing crystallites on the degraded sample surfaces. Post-test analyses confirm large amounts of Cr accompanied by a Sr-enrichment within the first 600 nm of the surface of La 0.6 Sr 0.4 CoO 3-δ , indicating the decomposition of the perovskite phase by SrCrO 4 -formation. For La 2 NiO 4+δ the penetration depth of chromium is significantly less and Cr-traces up to a depth of up to 140 nm were determined by depth profiling. For both compounds silicon was found to spread in small patches across the entire sample surface as determined by elemental mapping analysis.

More and more flexible, bendable, and stretchable sensors and displays are becoming a reality. While complex engineering and fabrication methods exist to manufacture flexible thin film systems, materials engineering through advanced metallic thin film deposition methods can also be utilized to create robust and long-lasting flexible devices. In this review, materials engineering concepts as well as electro-mechanical testing aspects will be discussed for metallic films. Through the use of residual stress, film thickness, or microstructure tailoring, all controlled by the film deposition parameters, long-lasting flexible film systems in terms of increased fracture or deformation strains, electrical or mechanical reliability, can be generated. These topics, as well as concrete examples, will be discussed. One objective of this work is to provide a toolbox with sustainable and scalable methods to create robust metal thin films for flexible, bendable, and stretchable applications.

For decades, nanoindentation has been used for measuring mechanical properties of films with the widely used assumption that if the indentation depth does not exceed 10% of the film thickness, the substrate influence is negligible. The 10% rule was originally deduced for much thicker metallic films on steel substrates and involved only the hardness measurement. Thus, the boundaries of usability for measuring thin film elastic modulus may differ. Two known material systems of Mo and MoTa thin films on Si substrates are examined with nanoindentation and numerical modeling to show the limitations in measuring elastic moduli. An assessment of the hardness and elastic modulus as a function of contact depth and accurate modeling of the film/substrate deformation confirms the 10% rule for hardness measurements. For elastic modulus, the indentation depths should be much smaller. Results provide a recommended testing protocol for accurate assessment of thin film elastic modulus using nanoindentation. Graphical abstract