MicroMech_gallery13

**Elastic Anisotropy of Copper**
	Single crystal elastic constants are of fundamental importance in understanding the micromechanics of of complex polycrystalline and multiphase engineering materials. Many such materials large single crystals simply cannot be made. We have been exploring the use of microscale mechanical testing to provide direct measurement of the elastic properties. The FIB is used to cut microcantilever test pieces oriented within a suitable crystallographic orientation within a grain. These microcantilevers are then tested by bending through small deflections using a nanoindenter. We have shown that such a method can be used to measure the anisotropy in elastic response.

Contact: David Armstrong and Angus Wilkinson Measuring Anisotropy in Young’s Modulus Using Micromechanical Testing in Single Crystal Cu DEJ Armstrong, AJ Wilkinson, and SG Roberts Journal of Materials Research, (2009), vol. 24, 3268-3276 doi:10.1557/JMR.2009.0396

Single crystal elastic constants are of fundamental importance in understanding the micromechanics of of complex polycrystalline and multiphase engineering materials. Many such materials large single crystals simply cannot be made. We have been exploring the use of microscale mechanical testing to provide direct measurement of the elastic properties. The FIB is used to cut microcantilever test pieces oriented within a suitable crystallographic orientation within a grain. These microcantilevers are then tested by bending through small deflections using a nanoindenter. We have shown that such a method can be used to measure the anisotropy in elastic response.