Journal: Scientific Reports

Article Title: Cracking effects in squashable and stretchable thin metal films on PDMS for flexible microsystems and electronics

doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-27798-z

Figure Lengend Snippet: Measurement techniques used in the study. ( a ) Optical microscopy. The white and blue arrows indicate the strain directions relative to the long lengths of the wires used in the study. The characteristic crack spacing is indicated by λ . ( b ) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)—the crack width f is visible. The inset shows a depth profile of a crack. ( c ) Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to measure the evaporated film thickness and uniformity. ( d ) Optical interference microscopy was used to produce non-contact, large surface tomography of cracking and buckling. ( e ) Piezoresistance characterization via current-voltage ( IV ) measurements using a probe station. The inset shows how the IV changes with applied strain.

Article Snippet: The thickness, roughness, and uniformity of the evaporated metal films were measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM)—see Fig. (see Supplementary Table ).

Techniques: Microscopy, Electron Microscopy, Tomography