The IMAP division has a long term research track in the processing, characterization and testing of thin films, and this in close collaboration with colleagues of the Institute ICTEAM (mainly Prof. J.P. Raskin and L. Francis).
The films under interest have application in functional coatings, protective coatings, microelectronic, MEMS, flexible electronics and energy enabling devices. The deposition of the films essentially takes place within the platform WINFAB with a focus on monitoring the development of internal stress and of the microstructure either in situ or post-deposition. Systems including Pd, Cu, Ni, Al, Ti, Au, ZrNi metallic glass, graphene, Si, SiO2, PolySi, Al2O3, ZnO (pure or Al-doped), TiOx, NiOx, polyimide have been investigated over the last 10 years.
The mechanical properties are characterized by nanoindentation, by tensile test of films on polymer substrates and by original on chip test methods build based on microfabrication techniques. Tribological properties of the coatings are evaluated using nanoscratch, tribometer and erosion equipments.
The nanoscale plasticity/failure mechanisms controlling the mechanical properties are characterized using conventional and advanced electron microscopy techniques within the platform LACAMI at UCL and with colleagues of the electron microscopy for materials science (EMAT) group at the University of Antwerp.
Micromechanics based multiscale models are developed to predict the plastic deformation and fracture mechanisms in the films, including size effects and microstructure parameters, in collaboration with other colleagues inside the Institute iMMC (Prof. L. Delannay) and outside UCL.
International Journals
Sacre, Charles-Henry ; Lani, F. ; Guaino, Ph. ; Libralesso, L. ; Favache, Audrey ; Pardoen, Thomas. Effect of polymer interlayer on scratch resistance of hard film: Experiments and finite element modeling. In: Wear, Vol. 378-379, p. 136-144 (2017)
van der Rest, Astrid ; Idrissi, Hosni ; Henry, Frédéric ; Favache, Audrey ; Schryvers, Dominique ; Proost, Joris ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Van Overmeere, Quentin ; Pardoen, Thomas. Mechanical behavior of ultrathin sputter deposited porous amorphous Al2O3 films. In: Acta Materialia, Vol. 125, p. 27-37 (2017)
Vayrette, Renaud ; Galceran, M. ; Coulombier, Michaël ; Godet, S. ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas. Size dependent fracture strength and cracking mechanisms in freestanding polycrystalline silicon films with nanoscale thickness. In: Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Vol. 168, p. 190-203 (2016)
Lemoine, Guerric ; Delannay, Laurent ; Idrissi, Hosni ; Colla, Marie-Stéphane ; Pardoen, Thomas. Dislocation and back stress dominated viscoplasticity in freestanding sub-micron Pd films. In: Acta Materialia, Vol. 111, p. 10-21 (2016)
Pineau, André ; Amine Benzerga, A. ; Pardoen, Thomas. Failure of metals III: Fracture and fatigue of nanostructured metallic materials. In: Acta Materialia, Vol. 107, no.--, p. 508-544 (2016)
Favache, Audrey ; Ryelandt, Sophie ; Melchior, Maxime ; Zeb, Gul ; Carbonnelle, Pierre ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas. A generic “micro-Stoney” method for the measurement of internal stress and elastic modulus of ultrathin films. In: Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 87, no.1, p. 015002 (2016)
Pardoen, Thomas ; Colla, Marie-Stéphane ; Idrissi, Hosni ; Amin-Ahmadi, Behnam ; Wang, Binjie ; Schryvers, Dominique ; Bhaskar, Umesh Kumar ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre. A versatile lab-on-chip test platform to characterize elementary deformation mechanisms and electromechanical couplings in nanoscopic objects. In: Comptes rendus. Physique, Vol. 17, no.3-4, p. 485-495 (2016)
Lapouge, Pierre ; Onimus, Fabien ; Vayrette, Renaud ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Bréchet, Yves. A novel on chip test method to characterize the creep behavior of metallic layers under heavy ion irradiation. In: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 476, no. --, p. 20-29 (2016)
Amin-Ahmadi, Behnam ; Connétable, Damine ; Fivel, Marc ; Tanguy, Döme ; Delmelle, Renaud ; Turner, Stuart ; Malet, Loic ; Godet, Stéphane ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Proost, Joris ; Schryvers, Dominique ; Idrissi, Hosni. Dislocation/hydrogen interaction mechanisms in hydrided nanocrystalline palladium films. In: Acta Materialia, Vol. 111, p. 253-261 (2016)
Vayrette, Renaud ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas. On-chip fracture testing of freestanding nanoscale materials. In: Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Vol. 150, no.--, p. 222-238 (2015)
Favache, Audrey ; Sacre, Charles-Henry ; Coulombier, Michaël ; Libralesso, Laure ; Guaino, Philippe ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Bailly, Christian ; Nysten, Bernard ; Pardoen, Thomas. Fracture mechanics based analysis of the scratch resistance of thin brittle coatings on a soft interlayer. In: Wear, Vol. 330-331, no.--, p. 461-468 (2015)
Ghidelli, Matteo ; Gravier, S. ; Blandin, J.-J. ; Djemia, P. ; Mompiou, F. ; Abadias, G. ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas. Extrinsic mechanical size effects in thin ZrNi metallic glass films. In: Acta Materialia, Vol. 90, no.--, p. 232-241 (2015)
Colla, Marie-Stéphane ; Amin-Ahmadi, B. ; Idrissi, Hosni ; Malet, L. ; Godet, S. ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Schryvers, D. ; Pardoen, Thomas. Dislocation-mediated relaxation in nanograined columnar palladium films revealed by on-chip time-resolved HRTEM testing. In: Nature Communications, Vol. 6, no. --, p. 5922 (2015)
Delmelle, Renaud ; Amin-Ahmadi, Behnam ; Sinnaeve, Marc ; Idrissi, Hosni ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Schryvers, Dominique ; Proost, Joris. Effect of structural defects on the hydriding kinetics of nanocrystalline Pd thin films. In: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 40, no.23, p. 7335-7347 (2015)
Mulay, Shantanu S. ; Becker, Gauthier ; Vayrette, Renaud ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Galceran, Montserrat ; Godet, Stéphane ; Noels, Ludovic. Multiscale modelling framework for the fracture of thin brittle polycrystalline films: application to polysilicon. In: Computational Mechanics : solids, fluids, engineered materials, aging, infrastructure, molecular dynamics, heat transfer, manufacturing processes, optimization, fracture and integrity, Vol. 55, no. 1, p. 73-91 (2015)
Ghidelli, Matteo ; Gravier, Sébastien ; Blandin, Jean-Jacques ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Lani, Frédéric ; Pardoen, Thomas. Size-dependent failure mechanisms in ZrNi thin metallic glass films. In: Scripta Materialia, Vol. 89, no.--, p. 9-12 (2014)
Favache, Audrey ; Libralesso, Laure ; Jacques, Pascal ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Bailly, Christian ; Nysten, Bernard ; Pardoen, Thomas. Fracture toughness measurement of ultra-thin hard films deposited on a polymer. In: Thin Solid Films, Vol. 550, no. 1, p. 464-471 (2014)
Pardoen, Thomas. Size and rate dependent dependent necking in thin metallic films. In: Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 62, no.--, p. 81-98 (2014)
Ghidelli, Matteo ; Gravier, Sébastien ; Blandin, Jean-Jacques ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Mompiou, Frédéric. Compositional-induced structural change in ZrxNi100−x thin film metallic glasses. In: Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Vol. 615, no. supplément 1, p. S348-S351 (2014)
Ghidelli, Matteo ; Volland, Antoine ; Blandin, Jean-Jacques ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Mompiou, Frédéric ; Djemia, Philippe ; Gravier, Sébastien. Exploring the mechanical size effects in Zr65Ni35 thin film metallic glasses. In: Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Vol. 615, no. supplément 1, p. S90-S92 (2014)
Idrissi, Hosni ; Kobler, Aaron ; Amin-Ahmadi, Behnam ; Coulombier, Michaël ; Galceran, Montserrat ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Godet, Stéphane ; Kübel, Christian ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Schryvers, Dominique. Plasticity mechanisms in ultrafine grained freestanding aluminum thin films revealed by in-situ transmission electron microscopy nanomechanical testing. In: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, no.10, p. 101903 (2014)
Guisbiers, Grégory ; Colla, Marie-Stéphane ; Coulombier, Michaël ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas. Study of creep/relaxation mechanisms in thin freestanding nanocrystalline palladium films through the lab-on-chip technology. In: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 113, no.024513, p. 024513-1 - 024513-6 (2013)
Lambricht, N. ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Yunus, Sami. Giant stretchability of thin gold films on rough elastomeric substrates. In: Acta Materialia, Vol. 61, no. 2, p. 540-547 (2013)
Mompiou, F. ; Legros, M. ; Boé, A. ; Coulombier, Michaël ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas. Inter- and intragranular plasticity mechanisms in ultrafine-grained Al thin films: An in situ TEM study. In: Acta Materialia, Vol. 61, no.1, p. 205-216 (2013)
Walewyns, Thomas ; Reckinger, Nicolas ; Ryelandt, Sophie ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Francis, Laurent. Polyimide as a versatile enabling material for microsystems fabrication: surface micromachining and electrodeposited nanowires integration. In: Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering : structures, devices & systems, Vol. 23, no. 9, p. 12 (2013)
Amin-Ahmadi, B. ; Idrissi, Hosni ; Galceran, M ; Colla, Marie-Stéphane ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Godet, Stéphane ; Schryvers, D. Effect of deposition rate on the microstructure of electron beam evaporated nanocrystalline Pd thin films. In: Thin Solid Films, Vol. 539, no.--, p. 145-150 (2013)
Houri, S. ; Bhaskar, Umesh Kumar ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre. Note: Size effects on the tensile response of top-down fabricated Si nanobeams. In: Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 84, no.3, p. 036102 (2013)
Amin-Ahmadi, Behnam ; Idrissi, Hosni ; Delmelle, Renaud ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Proost, Joris ; Schryvers, Dominique. High resolution transmission electron microscopy characterization of fcc → 9R transformation in nanocrystalline palladium films due to hydriding. In: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 102, no. 7, p. 071911 (2013)
Bhaskar, Umesh Kumar ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Passi, Vikram ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre. Piezoresistance of nano-scale silicon up to 2GPa in tension. In: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 102, no.3, p. 031911 (2013)
Houri, Samer ; Bhaskar, Umesh Kumar ; Gallacher, B. ; Francis, Laurent ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre. Dynamic analysis of multi-beam MEMS structures for the extraction of the stress-strain response of thin films. In: Experimental Mechanics : an international journal of the Society for Experimental Mechanics, Vol. 53, no. 3, p. 441-453 (2013)
Coulombier, Michaël ; Guisbiers, Grégory ; Colla, Marie-Stéphane ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas. On-chip stress relaxation testing method for freestanding thin film materials. In: Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 83, no.10, pp. 105004 - 105004-9 (2012)
Colla, Marie-Stéphane ; Wang, Binjie ; Idrissi, Hosni ; Schryvers, D. ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas. High strength-ductility of thin nanocrystalline palladium films with nanoscale twins : On-chip testing and grain aggregate model. In: Acta Materialia, Vol. 60, no. 4, p. 1795-1806 (2012)
Mouthuy, Pierre-Olivier ; Coulombier, Michaël ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Jonas, Alain. Overcurvatuve describes the buckling and folding of rings from curved origami to foldable tents. In: Nature Communications, Vol. 3, p. 1290 (2012)
Urena, F. ; Olsen, S.H. ; Šiller, L. ; Bhaskar, Umesh Kumar ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre. Strain in silicon nanowire beams. In: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 112, no. 11, p. 114506 (2012)
Wang, Binjie ; Idrissi, Hosni ; Galceran, M. ; Colla, Marie-Stéphane ; Turner, S. ; Hui, S. ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Godet, Stéphane ; Schryvers, D. Advanced TEM investigation of the plasticity mechanisms in nanocrystalline freestanding palladium films with nanoscale twins. In: International Journal of Plasticity, Vol. 37, no. -, p. 140-156 (2012)
Passi, Vikram ; Bhaskar, Umesh Kumar ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Sodervall, Ulf ; Nilsson, Bengt ; Petersson, Goran ; Hagberg, Mats ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre. High-Throughput On-Chip Large Deformation of Silicon Nanoribbons and Nanowires. In: IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Vol. 21, no.4, p. 822-829 (2012)
Wang, Binjie ; Idrissi, Hosni ; Shi, H. ; Colla, Marie-Stéphane ; Michotte, Sébastien ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Schryvers, D.. Texture dependent twin formation in nanocrystalline thin Pd films. In: Scripta Materialia, Vol. 66, no. 11, p. 866-871 (2012)
Bhaskar, Umesh Kumar ; Passi, Vikram ; Houri, Samer ; Escobedo-Cousin, Enrique ; Olsen, Sarah H. ; Pardoen, Thomas ; Raskin, Jean-Pierre. On-chip tensile testing of nanoscale silicon free-standing beams. In: Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 27, no. 3, p. 571-579 (2012)