Local elasticity and mobility of twin boundaries in martensitic films studied by atomic force acoustic microscopy

Abstract

Nanoscale elastic properties of twinned martensite NiMnGa films were characterized by means of atomic force acoustic microscopy using cantilever contact-resonance spectra to measure the local contact stiffness k * and the local damping Q −1 , which contains information on the crystallographic anisotropy of martensitic twin variants and the dissipative motion of twin boundaries (TBs). Images of k * and indentation modulus maps were obtained. Similar to topography images measured by conventional atomic force microscopy in contact mode, they show the nature of the twin structure and thus a regular variation in local elastic modulus. A correlation between k * and Q −1 was observed and mirrors the motion of the TB accompanied by a viscoelastic procedure. The k * -image and the topography image measured are opposite in contrast, which likely arises from mobile and immobile TBs depending on the geometry of twinning. Multi-resonance spectra were measured, which can be related to martensitic multivariants and are explainable as different types of nanotwins. A critical stress, defined as the starting point of softening due to TB movement was determined to be about 0.5 GPa for a thick film (1 µm) and 0.75 GPa for a thin film (0.15 µm), respectively. The values are much larger than that measured for bulk materials, but reasonable due to a large internal stress in the films.

Excitation and detection of acoustic phonons in nanoscale systems

“…139 Similar ultrasonic AFMs were used for the mechanical mapping of material surfaces. [140][141][142] Furthermore, the detection of ultrasonic surface vibrations with MHz range bandwidth has been accomplished by adding an optical knife-edge detector in an AFM setup. 143,144 In addition, AFM based probe systems for the detection of laserinduced SAWs have been reported.…”

Mapping of elasticity and damping in an α + β titanium alloy through atomic force acoustic microscopy

“…An improved UAFM technique was used for mapping the resonance frequency and the quality factor, Q, in carbon reinforced plastics composites [ 7 ]. In recent years, AFAM has been extensively used to determine elastic stiffness or damping properties in nano-crystalline nickel [ 2 ], PMMA films [ 8 ], NiMnGa films [ 9 ], Arabidopsis plant [ 10 ], polystyrene–propylene blends [ 11 ], nickel base alloys [ 12 – 13 ], ferritic steels [ 13 ], and metallic glasses [ 14 ]. Besides contact-resonance based methods, multi-frequency AFM techniques have also been used for measurement of elastic and damping properties in living cells [ 15 ], proteins [ 16 ] and polymers [ 17 – 18 ].…”

Structural and Magnetic Properties of Sputter-Deposited Polycrystalline Ni-Mn-Ga Ferromagnetic Shape-Memory Thin Films

“…23 Furthermore, the sputtering process is more suitable for integration of these films with MEMS fabrication technology. Hence, sputtering is an effective technique to produce Ni-Mn-Ga thin films, 17,24 being widely used in commercial coating technology.…”