More severe surface relief but stronger fatigue resistance at small scales: Vacancy-assisted fatigue damage mechanism

Surface relief in forms of extrusions and intrusions as the substantial feature of early fatigue damage is one of the most important phenomena studied in metal fatigue. The most common surface relief models in bulk metals are agreed to be correlated with the formation of typical dislocation patterns as persistent slip bands (PSBs), while little is known about the fundamental mechanisms at submicron and even nanometer scales where dislocation pattern formation is fully inhibited. Here, as exampled with thin Au films, the underlying fatigue damage mechanism at small scales is investigated through the quantitative characterization of fatigue damages. Continuous generation and migration of vacancies is found to be crucial for the shape of extrusion/intrusions and kinetics of their growth at submicron and even nanometer scales. Due to the degraded dislocation interaction and intensified vacancy diffusion, the delayed vacancy accumulation in the small-scale metal interior suppresses the extrusion and interface void formation in thinner films, which finally leads to the superior ability to support tremendous surface relief and strong fatigue resistance. The finding of the vacancy-dominated fatigue mechanism at small scales extends our understanding of the metal fatigue mechanisms down to the submicron and even nanometer scales and suggests a novel interface engineering strategy by vacancy behavior modulation for fatigue-tolerance material design.