Duo Li1, Shuhao Kang1, Yukun Liu2, Yang Shen2, Ruihan Li3, Yuhu Liu1, Shujun Huang4, Xin Wu5, Huan Liu2,*
CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.88, No.1, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2026.078734
- 08 May 2026
Abstract Tungsten plays a critical role in semiconductor electrical interconnects, and a thorough understanding of its mechanical properties is essential for optimizing its processing and performance. However, few studies have explored the effect of grain refinement on the mechanical behavior of tungsten. The work indicates a phenomenological transition around ~7.3 nm within the tested grain-size range that governs the nanoindentation response of tungsten. To establish this, we performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of nanoindentation for different grain sizes and analyzed surface pile-up, elastic recovery, atomic displacement, loading force, hardness, stress/strain behavior, dislocation density, and dislocation evolution. More >