Buckling structures that cannot be simply understood in the frame of continuum elastic theory have been observed by atomic force microscopy on gold films; 630 nm thick, deposited by sputtering method on silicon substrates. X-ray diffraction analyses and finite element simulations have been carried out to characterize the stress levels in and around these buckling structures. The high stress concentration evidenced near the edges of the circular blisters may involve plastic damage resulting in the strong bending of the buckled structures experimentally observed but does not seem to induce a decohesion process of the film/substrate interface. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.