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Nanoindentation of high-purity vapor deposited lithium films: A mechanistic rationalization of diffusion-mediated flow

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Abstract

Nanoindentation experiments performed in 5 and 18 μm thick vapor deposited polycrystalline lithium films at 31 °C reveal the mean pressure lithium can support is strongly dependent on length scale and strain rate. At the smallest length scales (indentation depths of 40 nm), the mean pressure lithium can support increases from ∼23 to 175 MPa as the indentation strain rate increases from 0.195 to 1.364 s−1. Furthermore, these pressures are ∼46–350 times higher than the nominal yield strength of bulk polycrystalline lithium. The length scale and strain rate dependent hardness is rationalized using slightly modified forms of the Nabarro–Herring and Harper–Dorn creep mechanisms. Load-displacement curves suggest a stress and length-scale dependent transition from diffusion to dislocation-mediated flow. Collectively, these experimental observations shed significant new light on the mechanical behavior of lithium at the length scale of defects existing at the lithium/solid electrolyte interface.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was sponsored jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Battery Materials Research program (managed by Tien Duong) and by TARDEC, the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center. E.G.H. is grateful for start-up funding from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Michigan Technological University. V.T.’s contributions were financially supported through the MSE Department’s McArthur Internship program. The authors are also grateful for the guidance and input provided by Professor George M. Pharr during the writing of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, 49931, USA

    Erik G. Herbert, Stephen A. Hackney & Violet Thole

  2. Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 37830, USA

    Nancy J. Dudney

  3. International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, Hyderabad, Telangana, 500005, India

    P. Sudharshan Phani

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  1. Erik G. Herbert
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  2. Stephen A. Hackney
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  5. P. Sudharshan Phani
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Correspondence to Erik G. Herbert.

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Herbert, E.G., Hackney, S.A., Thole, V. et al. Nanoindentation of high-purity vapor deposited lithium films: A mechanistic rationalization of diffusion-mediated flow. Journal of Materials Research 33, 1347–1360 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.84

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