Effect of microstructural evolution on mechanical and electrical properties of Ag–Mo thin films

Abstract

Herein, Ag-Mo films were deposited on Si(100) substrates by magnetron co-sputtering. The phase evolution and microstructural investigation revealed that the pure Ag phase and no Ag(Mo) solid solution were formed in the Ag-rich films even though the Mo content reached 53 at.%. However, the metastable Mo(Ag) solid solution was formed on the Mo-rich side. The Young's modulus, hardness, resistivity and the relationship between these properties and the microstructural evolution of Ag-Mo films were studied. Precisely, when the Mo content was controlled at 86 at.%, the hardness reached the maximum value of 14.64 GPa, and exceeded that of the pure Mo film. Meanwhile, the resistivity appeared to be a minimum value because the film had the maximum solid solubility and better crystallinity. The study on the microstructural, mechanical and electrical properties of Ag-Mo films provided a basis for the application of the film in electrical contact coatings.

Enthalpy‐Driven Self‐Healing in Thin Metallic Films on Flexible Substrates

“…[50][51][52] Additional samples were strained to 15% (pre-tests), where the average saturation crack density was measured via the line intercept method and added to Table 1 to allow for quantitative comparison to other studies. Literature values of Gao et al [30] are shown in Table 1 to allow comparison between similar compositions with the presented work.…”

“…Saturation crack density at 15% strain was determined from pre-tests. Data combined with literature data for similar compositions extracted from Gao et al [30] using WebPlotDigitizer. [53] Resistivity [Ω m] × 10 accelerating the healing process.…”

“…For Mo 1-x Cu x alloys, they showed that the electro-mechanical properties, such as the deformation behavior, changed with increasing Cu content. [29] Gao et al [30] investigated the mechanical and electrical properties of Mo 1-x Ag x over the entire composition range. They studied the system due to its superior hardness, decreased costs, and increased electrical erosive resistance performance compared to pure Ag.…”

“…They studied the system due to its superior hardness, decreased costs, and increased electrical erosive resistance performance compared to pure Ag. [30,31] Sputtered Mo 1-x Ag x (18 ≤ x ≤ 52.1) films on flexible polymer substrates were found to exhibit self-formation of single crystal Ag nanoparticles at the surface, even at room temperature. [32] The nanoparticles formation in the metastable Mo-Ag system is driven by phaseseparation into polycrystals due to highly positive enthalpy of mixing (H mix ) that outweighs the enthalpy of segregation (H seg ) significantly.…”

Combinatorial development of antibacterial FeCoCr-Ag medium entropy alloy

“…The weak diffraction peak of Ag (111) (PDF#04-0783) suggests a duplex-phase microstructure. The location of diffraction peaks in TPs remains unshifted along with increasing Ag content, suggesting that the Ag was not further embedded in the FeCoCr lattice [18]. With further increase in Ag content, the intensity of the Ag (111) peak becomes stronger than that of the FeCoCr phase, suggesting increasing formation of Ag phase.…”