Elastic modulus and hardness of cubic GaN grown by molecular beam epitaxy obtained by nanoindentation Article uri icon

abstract

  • The mechanical properties of gallium nitride thin films in the cubic phase (c-GaN) measured by Berkovich nanoindentation are reported here. The c-GaN thin films were grown on MgO (100) substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The X-ray diffraction results show that GaN thin films correspond to more than 99%25 cubic phase in all cases. Plastic transitions called pop-in events are observed during loading in some load-displacement curves at different depths. We believe that pop-in event is present when the tip interacts with defects encountered at different depths. The mean values of the hardness and Young%27s modulus of cubic GaN are 22 ± 1 GPa, and 293 ± 12, respectively. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.
  • The mechanical properties of gallium nitride thin films in the cubic phase (c-GaN) measured by Berkovich nanoindentation are reported here. The c-GaN thin films were grown on MgO (100) substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The X-ray diffraction results show that GaN thin films correspond to more than 99%25 cubic phase in all cases. Plastic transitions called pop-in events are observed during loading in some load-displacement curves at different depths. We believe that pop-in event is present when the tip interacts with defects encountered at different depths. The mean values of the hardness and Young's modulus of cubic GaN are 22 ± 1 GPa, and 293 ± 12, respectively. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

publication date

  • 2020-01-01