Tensile behavior of free-standing gold films. Part II. Fine-grained films Original Research Article

The room temperature mechanical behavior of thin gold films (0.2–2.0 μm thickness) was investigated through uniaxial tensile testing. Films were deposited by electron beam and thermal evaporation, under varying conditions, in order to produce films with different microstructures. This particular study concentrated on the behavior of the films with grain sizes of less than about 0.5 μm. The testing showed that these fine-grained films exhibited significant strain rate dependence, in contrast with a previous study of gold films with more coarse grain sizes . The results are discussed in terms of existing theories for rate-dependent metals.