Piezoelectric in situ transmission electron microscopy technique for direct observations of fatigue damage accumulation in constrained metallic thin films

A piezoelectric in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technique has been developed to observe the damage mechanism in constrained metallic thin films under cyclic loading. The technique was based on the piezoelectric actuation of a multilayered structure in which a metallic thin film was sandwiched between a piezoelectric actuator and a silicon substrate. An alternating electric field with a static offset was applied on the piezoelectric actuator to drive the crack growth in the thin metallic layer while the sample was imaged in TEM. The technique was demonstrated on solder thin films where cavitation was found to be the dominant fatigue damage mechanism.