AUTHOR=Bigelow Shannon , Shen Yu-Lin 

TITLE=Indentation-Induced Shear Band Formation in Thin-Film Multilayers

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Materials

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/materials/articles/10.3389/fmats.2017.00025

DOI=10.3389/fmats.2017.00025

ISSN=2296-8016

ABSTRACT=<p>We report an exploratory investigation into the cause of shear band formation in multilayer thin films subject to nanoindentation. The material system considered here is composed of alternating aluminum (Al) and silicon carbide (SiC) nanolayers, atop a silicon (Si) substrate. Finite element models are developed in an attempt to reproduce the shear banding phenomenon observed experimentally. By introducing strain softening into the material model for the hard SiC layers, shear bands can be seen to emerge from the indentation site in the finite element analysis. Broad implications, along with possible directions for future work, are discussed.</p>