High-resolution strain-mapping during in-situ nanoindentation of CVD thin films

The NanoMAX beamline is a hard X-ray nanoprobe beamline at MAX IV Laboratory, Lund, Sweden. This beamline was designed to take full advantage of the exceptionally low emittance and the resulting coherence properties of the X-ray beam. A nano-focus beam of 50×50 nm2 of high X-ray photon intensity is available for experiments. This small focus is ideal to investigate heterogeneous samples in materials science with high spatial resolution, utilizing techniques such as scanning X-ray diffraction, 2D X-ray fluorescence mapping, and coherent imaging in the Bragg geometry. Chalmers University of Technology and MAX IV Laboratory have acquired a nanoindenter to be installed at the NanoMAX beamline. The combination of in-situ micro-mechanical testing and nano-focused scanning X-ray diffraction permits time-resolved high-resolution in-situ strain mapping. The experimental configuration is based on an Alemnis nanoindenter which is transferrable between the beamline and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). This allows for a sample characterization in a SEM prior to the X-ray beamline experiment. A potential science case is the investigation of local residual stress fields and their changes under increasing load. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract