Deformation Strength of Nanocrystalline Thin Films

The data of deformation strength and microstructure of thin films of nanocrystalline Pd recently provided by Colla et al. have been analysed. It is shown that the properties of the films with cylindrical grains of 30 nm diameter extending over a significant portion of the film thickness (≈90 nm) are quantitatively comparable to what is known from nanocrystalline bulk material. This is explained in terms of boundary-mediated processes governing emission, storage, and recovery of dislocations.