For the polymer-supported metal thin films that are finding increasing applications, the critical strain to nucleate microcracks ( εc ) should be more meaningful than the generally measured rupture strain. In this paper, we develop both electrical resistance method and microcrack analyzing method to determine εc of polymer-supported Cu films simply but precisely. Significant thickness dependence has been clearly revealed for εc of the polymer-supported Cu films, i.e., thinner is the film lower is εc . This dependence is suggested to cause by the constraint effect of refining grain size on the dislocation movability.

Dear Prof. Li, i have made two figures about rupture strains of  films on elastomer according to the datas shown in your papers-- "Deformability of thin metal films on elastomer substrates" International Journal of Solids and Structures 43 (2006) 2351–2363. and "Stretchability of thin metal films on elastomer substrates" APL85(2004). According to the papers, the stiffer or thicker the elastomer substrates, the larger rupture strains, then where would be the curve with H/h =200? Whether the rupture strain is even large, according to your simulations?