Elastic-plastic buckling of gold thin films into straight-sided blisters

We report on straight-sided buckles experimentally observed by optical and atomic force microscopies on gold ductile thin films deposited by physical vapor deposition on silicon wafers. It is shown that, whatever the buckle dimensions, their maximum deflections are higher than those expected by the elastic theory. Finite elements simulations taking into account plastic deformations in the film have been carried out. The numerical results are presented, discussed and compared to the experimental observations. •Straight-sided buckles on gold thin films under high compressive stresses experimentally observed and numerically compared.•Elastic plate theory not sufficient for deeper explanation of the buckled morphologies.•The ductile character of the gold films explains the enhanced maximum deflection of the buckles.•Plastic constitutive hardening law extracted from the experimental results.