Every year, the University of Leoben awards the Science Prize for Women to female scientists and students for outstanding achievements in research. On this year's International Women's Day, the award in the PostDoc category went to Barbara Putz, Assistant Professor at the Department of Materials Science. Born in Leoben, she is researching the development of thin-film systems that can be used in both microelectronics and space travel. In everyday life, this technology is used in foldable cell phones or as insulation material for satellites, among other things. As part of Barbara Putz's research work, a unique coating system was used to produce metal/oxide nanolaminate films on flexible polymer substrates. Mechanical tests were carried out at the synchrotron to analyze the deformation behavior. It was found that the crack resistance of the films increases as the thickness of the oxide layer decreases. A biaxial yield stress model of the films was developed to describe the mechanical behavior under multiaxial loading conditions. This is of great importance for the application in various flexible carrier systems and load cases in electronics.
