Advances in Manufacturing ›› 2018, Vol. 6 ›› Issue (4): 376-383.doi: 10.1007/s40436-018-0234-9

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Investigation into the room temperature creep-deformation of potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystals using nanoindentation

Yong Zhang1,2, Ning Hou1,2,3, Liang-Chi Zhang3   

  1. 1 School of Mechatronics Engineering, The Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People's Republic of China;
    2 Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Micro-systems and Micro-structures Manufacturing, The Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People's Republic of China;
    3 Laboratory for Precision and Nano Processing Technologies, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
  • Received:2018-04-20 Revised:2018-09-28 Online:2018-12-25 Published:2018-12-08
  • Contact: Ning Hou,houning3393@163.com;Liang-Chi Zhang,liangchi.zhang@unsw.edu.au E-mail:houning3393@163.com;liangchi.zhang@unsw.edu.au
  • Supported by:
    This work was funded as part of the DFG Project "Efficient determination of Stability Lobe Diagrams" (Grant No. BR 2905/73-1).

Abstract: It has been a tremendous challenge to manufacture damage-free and smooth surfaces of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals to meet the requirements of high-energy laser systems. The intrinsic issue is whether a KDP crystal can be plastically deformed so that the material can be removed in a ductile mode during the machining of KDP. This study investigates the room temperature creep-deformation of KDP crystals with the aid of nanoindentation. A stress analysis was carried out to identify the creep mechanism. The results showed that KDP crystals could be plastically deformed at the nanoscale. Dislocation motion is responsible for creep-deformation. Both creep rate and creep depth decrease with decrease in peak force and loading rate. Dislocation nucleation and propagation bring about pop-ins in the loaddisplacement curves during nanoindentation.

The full text can be downloaded at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40436-018-0234-9

Key words: Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals, Creep-deformation, Stress, Dislocation