Experimental evidence of plastic deformation instability in nanoscale Au/Cu multilayers

Plastic deformation instability in Au/Cu multilayers has been investigated as a function of individual layer thickness by nanoindentation and focused ion beam cross-sectional view techniques. Experimental results demonstrate that when the length scales of grains and individual layer thickness of the multilayered composite approach the nanometer regime, inhomogeneous shear banding becomes prevalent. The width of shear bands decreases with the decrease of these length scales. The extent of plastic deformation instability was characterized and the possible physical mechanism of the highly localized plastic deformation was explained. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.