There was great interest in metallic multilayer thin films with the layer thickness on the order of nm due to their high hardness and strength. The yield strength deviates from Hall–Petch and Orowan predictions with layer thickness as the controlling factor, and other factors were in need to explain this phenomenon. The effect of dislocation source length upon yield strength of multilayer system in the nanoscale regime was investigated using a three dimensional cellular automaton dislocation model. Different initial dislocation source lengths were assumed in the model for the metallic multilayer thin films with different layer thicknesses. The multilayer system studied here was composed of alternating A and B components with face-centered cubic structure, cube-on-cube orientation relationship, and the same layer thickness. The results show that the initial dislocation source length could provide an explanation for the above deviations.

Effect of Dislocation Source Length on Yield Strength of Nanostructured Metallic Multilayer Thin Films. Q.Li: Materials Science and Engineering A, 2008, 493[1-2], 288-91