Cohesive zone modeling of interfacial delamination in PZT thin films

Previous experimental investigations [Shang, F., Kitamura, T., Hirakata, H., Kanno, I., Kotera, H., Terada, K., 2005. Experimental and theoretical investigations of delamination at free edge of interface between piezoelectric thin films on a substrate. International Journal of Solids and Structures 42 (5–6) 1729–1741] have demonstrated that multilayered Cr/PZT/PLT/Pt/Ti thin films deposited on single-crystal silicon substrates are delaminated along the interface between Cr and PZT layers in a brittle manner. This study starts with a model based on the cohesive zone concept and carries out numerical simulations to check the fracture behavior of this interfacial delamination. Three types of cohesive zone models (CZMs) are adopted, including the exponential, bilinear, and trapezoidal models. Characteristic CZM parameters are extracted through comparisons with experimental results. The simulation results show that (i) cohesive strength and work of separation are the dominating parameters in the CZMs; (ii) the bilinear CZM more suitably describes this brittle interfacial delamination; and (iii) in comparison with typical several mm-thick film/coating materials, the fracture energy of this weak Cr/PZT interface is quite low. Our study demonstrates the applicability of CZM in characterizing the interface fracture behavior of film materials with micrometer thicknesses.