Thin Solid Films, Vol.669, 80-84, 2019
Scaling theory of the mechanical properties of amorphous nano-films
Numerical Simulations are employed to create amorphous nano-films of a chosen thickness on a crystalline substrate which induces strain on the film. The films are grown by a vapor deposition technique. Using the exact relations between the Hessian matrix and the shear and bulk moduli we explore the mechanical properties of the nano-films as a function of the density of the substrate and the film thickness. The existence of the substrate dominates the mechanical properties of the combined substrate-film system. Scaling concepts are then employed to achieve data collapse in a wide range of densities and film thicknesses.