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The rheological properties of amorphous olivine thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition have been studied based on ambient temperature nanoindentation under constant strain-rate as well as relaxation conditions. The amorphous olivine films exhibit a viscoelastic-viscoplastic behavior with a significant rate dependency. The strain-rate sensitivity m is equal to ∼ 0.05 which is very high for silicates, indicating a complex out-of-equilibrium structure. The minimum apparent activation volume determined from nanoindentation experiments corresponds to Mg and Fe atomic metallic sites in the (Mg,Fe) 2 SiO 4 crystalline lattice. The ambient temperature creep behavior of the amorphous olivine films differs very much from the one of single crystal olivine. This behavior directly connects to the recent demonstration of the activation of grain boundary sliding in polycrystalline olivine following grain boundary amorphization under high-stress. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent observations made by the authors revealed the activation of stress induced amorphization and sliding at grain boundary in olivine [1] , a mechanism which is expected to play a pivotal role in the viscosity drop at the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary and the brittle-ductile transition in the lithospheric mantle. However, there is a lack of information in the literature regarding the intrinsic mechanical properties and the elementary deformation mechanisms of this material, especially at time scales relevant for geodynamics. In the present work, amorphous olivine films were obtained by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The mechanical response including the rate dependent behavior are investigated using a tension-on-chip (TOC) method developed at UCLouvain allowing to perform creep/relaxation tests on thin films at extremely low strain rates. In the present work, strain rate down to 10−12 s−1 was reached which is unique. High strain rate sensitivity of 0.054 is observed together with the activation of relaxation at the very early stage of deformation. Furthermore, digital image correlation (DIC), used for the first time on films deformed by TOC, reveals local strain heterogeneities. The relationship between such heterogeneities, the high strain rate sensitivity and the effect of the electron beam in the scanning electron microscope is discussed and compared to the literature. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]