Browsing by Author "Kurz, Silke J. B."

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    Nanocrystalline thin films : microstructure, stability and properties
    (2014) Kurz, Silke J. B.; Mittemeijer, Eric J. (Prof. Dr. Ir.)
    The introduction of crystal defects into the microstructure of materials can lead to a considerable improvement of their properties. In particular, the effect of nanocrystallinity and nanotwinning is a current field of research. The present thesis contributes to this topic by the investigation of the microstructure, stability and properties of magnetron-sputtered Ni-based thin films using diffraction methods, mainly X-ray diffraction. The {111} fibre-textured films exhibit a very high density of planar faults oriented parallel to the surface of the films. This microstructure generates a peculiar intensity distribution in reciprocal space which is utilized to investigate the stress state and the planar-fault density of thin films with different compositions in the present thesis. The results of analyses performed ex situ and in situ during tensile testing and thermal treatments are presented. The appearance and thermal stability of an hcp-like solid-solution phase - which can be considered as an fcc-like stacking exhibiting a twin-fault density of more than 50 % - in a certain composition range of the Ni-W system is rationalized by first-principles calculations.