Mechanical properties of gold nanometric films onto a polymeric substrate

Tensile testing and analysis are conducted to study mechanical properties of 50 to 300 nm thick high purity gold films deposited onto polypropylene substrates. Film elastic modulus as a function of film thickness is obtained from tensile tests of the film/substrate system and data reduction methods based on a proposed bimaterial model and finite element analysis. Both analyses showed a tendency of the film elastic modulus to increase with decreased film thickness. Adequate film bonding to the polymeric substrate yielded large ductility to the films, evidencing only isolated short cracks after been subject to large tensile strains.