Title: Deformation and removal characteristics of LiTaO3 single crystals in nanoindentation and nanoscratch

Authors: Anshun He; Han Huang; Libo Zhou

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia. ' School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia. ' Department of System Engineering, Ibaraki University, Hitachi 316-8511, Japan

Abstract: The deformation and removal characteristics of lithium tantalate (LiTaO3) single crystal were investigated using nanoindentation and nanoscratch. During indenting, the occurrence of pop-in was associated with the transition of deformation from elastic to elasto-plastic. Slip bands were observed on the indented surface when the indentation load reached 4 mN. Slipping was along the crystal orientation of [10 12]. Nanoscratch revealed that the threshold normal load for the transition of removal modes from ductile to brittle was 2.5 mN, corresponding to a scratch depth of 70 nm. Cracks were found along scratched grooves, which were likely induced by shearing. The removal rate in nanoscratch increased with the increase in normal load, but remained unchanged after the load was greater than 4 mN.

Keywords: lithium tantalate; LiTaO3; nanoindentation; removal; slip bands; nanoscratch; deformation; cracks; shearing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAT.2012.051036

International Journal of Abrasive Technology, 2012 Vol.5 No.3, pp.258 - 269

Received: 20 Oct 2012
Accepted: 21 Oct 2012

Published online: 30 Jul 2014 *

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