Zug / Druck und Biegung

Compression and bending of micro pillars

Due to the ongoing miniaturization in many various fields of modern technology, micron-sized samples with large surface areas have received a high amount of attention in the worldwide scientific community. The mechanical behavior of such structures at the micron-scale varies drastically from their macro-scale counterparts. This phenomenon is known as the size effect and has been extensively investigated for several decades. FIB prepared micro-samples showed a great potential and technological importance for determination of plastic deformation, dislocation pile-up and fracture properties of purely brittle and semi-brittle material with limited plasticity. Anisotropic mechanical properties can easily be determined from polycrystalline materials due to small specimen requirement, which can be prepared inside a grain or lamella of required orientation. Additionally, grain boundaries and interfaces in polycrystalline materials can also be tested with little effort in comparison to conventional methods where the direct determination of interfacial properties is nearly impossible. Local methods like compression and bending tests of micro pillars have been used in our group to achieve an essential understanding about the deformation mechanism of different materials.