Fracture toughness determination by repetitive nano-impact testing in Cu/W nanomultilayers with length-scale-dependent films properties

Nanoscale metallic multilayers based on Cu/W have been considered as a potential material for structural applications in nuclear reactors and for the cladding of storage tanks for advanced fuels kept at high temperatures. The understanding of how mechanical properties change in relation to periodicity, λ, is required in order to use Cu/W nano-multilayers as a protective coating against radiation damage. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility of using the repetitive-nano-impact technique to obtain quantitative fracture toughness, K C , values in nano-multilayers and assess its variation as a function of λ.