It is important to determine the mechanical properties of thin films because they have got immense industrial application today.

Following mechanical properties are essential for the mechanical stability of thin films: 1) Elastic Modulus 2) Hardness 3) Fracture Toughness 4) Interfacial Adhesion Nanoindentation technique: The method is fast and sample preparation is simple. The thin film has neither to be removed from the substrate nor to be structured. It is a proven method for testing of all the four above stated mechanical properties. In this method, a diamond indenter is pressed into the film. The indentation depth as a function of the indenter load is recorded. The load placed on the indenter tip is increased as the tip penetrates further into the specimen and soon reaches a user- defined value . Plastic and elastic deformations occur during the loading step. For this reason, the elastic properties are extracted from the elastic unloading curve of the indentation process.. An indenter with a geometry known to high precision (usually a Berkovich tip, which has a three-sided pyramid geometry) is employed. During the course of the instrumented indentation process, a record of the depth of penetration is made, and then the area of the indent is determined using the known geometry of the indentation tip. Alternatively, Atomic force microscope can be used to image the indent area.

Measuring hardness:

The area of the residual indentation in the sample is measured and the hardness, H, is defined as the maximum load, Pmax, divided by the residual indentation area, Ar, or

Measuring elasticity:

Elasticity can also be measured using nano-indentation. For this first the stiffness of the thin film is determined by calculating the slope of the unloading curve from within the top 65% of the curve. And then the given formulas can be used to calculate the elastic modulus of the thin film.

Measuring Fracture Toughness:

It can be measured by knowing the propagation of radial cracks when indented at higher loads(100mN-500mN).

Issues:

Hardness and Elastic Properties vary with the Indentation Depth ->If it is too deep, substrate properties may come into play ->If too shallow then film may not show Plastic deformation Surface roughness and oxidation of thin film can give inaccurate results if the indents are too shallow. Also it is very important to have accurate knowledge of tip geometry, otherwise results will be inaccurate. This is difficult.