Figure 3 | Scientific Reports

Figure 3

From: In-situ Observation of Cross-Sectional Microstructural Changes and Stress Distributions in Fracturing TiN Thin Film during Nanoindentation

Figure 3

Local crystallographic texture changes during indentation with a load of 1.4N.

(a) On a SEM micrograph of the film cross-section, L1-L8 indicates schematically the positions at which cross-sectional X-ray nanodiffraction scanning was performed. Also, the nanocrystalline nature of the film with needle-like grains can be recognized. (b) Azimuthal distributions of intensities I(δ) of TiN 200 Debye-Scherrer rings were evaluated in the region of interest. (c) The changes in I(δ) at different sample film depths and L1-L8 positions document that the cubic TiN needle-like crystallites were tilted left and right away from the wedge axis up to 15 deg. The widening of the azimuthal distributions I(δ) in the contact area (c) demonstrates an increase in the film mosaicity and indirectly a film densification as a result of the irreversible film deformation in the imprint area are visible in Fig. 2a.

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