Periodic cracking of films supported on compliant substrates

When a tensile strain is applied to a film supported on a compliant substrate, a pattern of parallel cracks can channel through both the film and substrate. A linear-elastic fracture-mechanics model for the phenomenon is presented to extend earlier analyses in which cracking was limited to the film. It is shown how failure of the substrate reduces the critical strain required to initiate fracture of the film. This effect is more pronounced for relatively tough films. However, there is a critical ratio of the film to substrate toughness above which stable cracks do not form in response to an applied load. Instead, catastrophic failure of the substrate occurs simultaneously with the propagation of a single channel crack. This critical toughness ratio increases with the modulus mismatch between the film and the substrate, so that periodic crack patterns are more likely to be observed with relatively stiff films. With relatively low values of modulus mismatch, even a film that is more brittle than the substrate can cause catastrophic failure of the substrate. Below the critical toughness ratio, there is a regime in which stable crack arrays can be formed in the film and substrate. The depth of these arrays increases, while the spacing decreases, as the strain is increased. Eventually, the crack array can become deep enough to cause substrate failure.