Detecting co-deformation behavior of Cu–Au nanolayered composites

ABSTRACT

Co-deformation behavior is a key issue for plasticity stability of heterogeneous nanolayered materials. Using indentation testing, we investigated the plastic deformation behavior of a Cu–Au nanolayered composite (NLC) with an individual layer thickness of 50 nm. We found that the softer Au layer exhibited less deformability than the harder Cu layer in the initial stage of deformation, while this abnormal phenomenon started to gradually disappear as the constituent layers were severely thinned down to thicknesses less than about 10 nm. The basic mechanism for the observed co-deformation behavior at different length scales of the Cu–Au NLC will be discussed.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

IMPACT STATEMENT

An abnormal phenomenon of reduced deformability of Au layers compared to Cu layers in Cu–Au NLCs gradually disappeared as the constituent layer thicknesses were thinned plastically to less than 10 nm.

KEYWORDS:

• Plastic deformation
• nanolayer
• length scale
• composite
• interface

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [NSFC, Grant Nos. 51371180 and 51571199] and the External Cooperation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [Grant no. GJHZ1401]. The authors also acknowledge financial support by the Helmholtz-Association through the joint research group HCJRG-217.