Measurement of the elastic modulus of nanostructured gold and platinum thin films

Abstract

Cantilevers of atomic force microscope (AFM) have been uniformly coated with gold and platinum thin films. These films are nanostructured with thickness between 18 and 73 nm. Measuring the resonance frequencies of the cantilevers, before and after the Pt and Au coatings, and using the vibrating beam theory we determined the elastic moduli ${E}_{2}$ of the films. We have obtained ${E}_{2}=69.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2.6\mathrm{GPa}$ for gold and ${E}_{2}=139.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2.7\mathrm{GPa}$ for platinum, that are about 12% lower than the respective bulk elastic moduli.