A thin metal film vapor deposited on thick elastomer substrate develops an equi-biaxial compressive stress state when the system is cooled due to the large thermal expansion mismatch between the elastomer and the metal. At a critical stress, the film undergoes buckling into a family of modes with short wavelengths characteristic of a thin plate on a compliant elastic foundation. As the system is further cooled, a highly ordered herringbone pattern has been observed to develop. Here it is shown that the herringbone mode constitutes a minimum energy configuration among a limited set of competing modes.

Issue Section:
Technical Papers
Keywords:
gold, metallic thin films, vapour deposited coatings, buckling, thermal expansion, internal stresses
Topics:
Buckling, Stress, Wavelength, Thermal expansion
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Copyright © 2004
 by ASME
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