Study of structural behavior of thin films

The work directed towards developing methods of increasing the strength of thin boron films is reported. The program was divided into two main parts. The first involved the improvement of methods for the measurement of the strength of thin films. The second was a study of the effect of condensation of deposition temperature on the strength of the films. Techniques were developed for depositing boron films onto both sides of thin titanium and tantalum foils. Small dogbone sections of boron were made by masking. Strain gauges were then mounted on these to measure failure strains when the films were loaded in tension. Test results were consistent with those obtained by flexure tests. The most important flaws in the boron films appeared to have been generated by either small globules of boron ejected from the melt or small particles (possibly boron dust) on the substrate prior to deposition.