A simple strain cell for the measurement of the gauge factor of a thin film

In this article, we present the design and fabrication of a simple strain c ell using a displacement dial gauge. The strain sensitivity for this cell i s of the order of 10(-5) which is approximately equal to that obtained by c antilever bending. The advantage of this cell is that it can be used for th e determination of the strain for the metal films deposited on any type of substrates, which do not have well defined Young's modulus. The gauge facto r for discontinuous silver film deposited on softened poly-2-vinylpyridine substrate protected by an oxide overlayer coating is determined using this strain cell and the value of the gauge factor for this film is about 45. (C ) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(99)04304-X].