A method for interpreting the data from depth-sensing indentation

inst rurnen ts
M. F. Doerner
IBM General Products Division. San Jose, Culifirnia YS193
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, Colifornia 94305
W . D . Nix
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Sranford University, Stanford, Ca&rniu 94305
(Received 4 February 1986; accepted 16 June 1986)
Depth-sensing indentation instruments provide a means for studying the elastic and plastic
properties of thin films. A method for obtaining hardness and Young’s modulus from the
data obtained from these types of instruments is described. Elastic displacements are
determined from the data obtained during unloading of the indentation. Young’s modulus
can be calculated from these measurements. In addition, the elastic contribution to the total
displacement can be removed in order to calculate hardness. Determination of the exact
shape of the indenter at the tip is critical to the measurement of both hardness and elastic
modulus for indentation depths less than a micron. Hardness is shown to depend on strain
rate, especially when the hardness values are calculated from the data along the loading
curves.

1. INTRODUCTION instrument, the Nanoindenter from Nan0 Instruments

The need for techniques to study the mechanical
properties of thin films has recently rekindled an inter-
est in microhardness and sub-micron indentation de-
vices. Because thin film measurements require the use of
very small indentations, it has been recognized that
depth-sensing instruments are needed to provide the
necessary resolution and repeatability in the measure-
ment of hardness. Since conventional microhardness
testers require direct imaging of the indentations to ob-
tain hardness, large errors are introduced due to mea-
surement of the diagonal lengths, especially when the
indentations are small. In addition, the depth-sensing
instrument offers other advantages such as the ability to
obtain information about the elastic and time-depen-
dent plastic properties of the sample.
Although indentation hardness testing has been in
widespread use for almost a century, high resolution
depth-sensing instruments have only recently become
common. Most of the instruments in use have been built
by individual investigators to meet their specific re-
search requirements. ’+
Standard methods for inter-
preting the load-displacement curves obtained from
these instruments, however, have yet to be established.
Since depth-sensing instruments record the total pene-
Inc.
II. THE NANOINDENTER
Athough the data analysis methods described here
are applicable to any depth-sensing indentation instru-
ment, some of the details of the discussion are specific to
the Nanoindenter. For this reason, a brief description of
the Nanoindenter operation will be given here.
A schematic diagram of the indenting mechanism is
given in Fig. 1. The indenter is a triangular pyramid-
shaped diamond with the same area to depth ratio as the
traditional Vickers pyramid. The position of the indent-
er is determined by a capacitance displacement gauge. A
coil and magnet assembly located at the top of the load-
ing column is used to drive the indenter toward the sam-
ple. The force imposed on the column is controlled by
Suspending
Springs
-- (Magnet

-2
}
1 Loading Coil

Capacitance
Displacement
GXE
tration of the indenter into the sample, a method for
determining the elastic and plastic contributions to the
displacement is required. A technique for subtracting
the elastic displacement from the total displacement to Table 1
obtain the hardness is proposed. Also, a method for re-
lating the elastic displacements to Young’s modulus of
I
the sample is described. These methods have been ap- FIG. 1 . Schematic diagram of the indenting mechanism of the Ncno-
plied to data obtained using a commercially available indenter.

J. Mater. Res. 1 (4), Jul/Aug 1986 0003-6951/86/040601-09$01.75 @ 1986 Materials ResearchSociety 60 1

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 11 Feb 2015 IP address: 129.100.58.76

 M. F. Doerner and W. D. Nix: Interpretingthe data from depth-sensingindentation instruments
INDENTATION LOADING CURVE
I The load-displacement curve shown in Fig. 2 is ob-
hflnel hp1astic
DEPTH
FIG. 2. Typical load-displacement curve obtained using the Nanoin-
denter showing the difference between the plastic and final depths.
varying the current in the coil. The loading column is
suspended by flexible springs and the motion is damped
by air flow around the center plate of the capacitor,
which is attached to the loading column. The capaci-
tance displacement gauge permits one to detect dis-
placement changes of 0.2-0.3 nm. The force resolution
of the system is about 0.5 pN. Tester operation, includ-
ing indentation rate control and data recording, is com-
puter controlled.
A typical test involves moving the indenter to the
surface of the material and measuring the forces and
displacements associated with the indentation process.
The surface is located for each indentation by lowering
the indenter at a constant rate against the suspending
springs and detecting a change in velocity on contact
with the surface. In the testing mode, the load is incre-
mented in order to maintain a constant velocity, al-
though other schemes, such as a constant strain rate,
can be implemented. A typical testing rate is about 3
nm/s. A typical loading curve is shown in Fig. 2. The
depth plotted represents the total displacement of the
total
AT SURFACE UNDER LOAD
602 J. Mater. Res., Vol. 1, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1986
http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 11 Feb 2015
indenter relative to the initial position of the surface. It
is composed of both elastic and plastic displacements.
tained after removing the force contribution of the su-
spending springs and the displacements associated with
the measured compliance of the instrument. The instru-
ment compliance due to the loading column below the
capacitance gauge, however, can not be determined di-
rectly by calibration. This contribution is small and can
be obtained by analysis of the unloading curves as a
function ofindentation depth as shown in a later section.
111. HARDNESS MEASUREMENTS
Hardness is the equivalent of the average pressure
under the indenter, calculated as the applied load divid-
ed by the projected area ofcontact between the indenter
and the sample. In a conventional microhardness test,
the area of contact is determined by imaging of the in-
dentation after the load is removed and measuring the
diagonal lengths. At least for metals, there is little
change in the diameter of the indentation on unloading'
so that the conventional hardness test is essentially a test
of hardness under load, although it is subject to some
error due to the varying elastic contraction of the diag-
onal.
Hardness data can be obtained from a depth-sens-
ing instrument without imaging the indentations. This
feature provides greatly improved repeatability and
time savings over conventional microhardness tech-
niques. However, since the depth measured during the
indentation includes both plastic and elastic displace-
ments, the elastic contribution must be subtracted from
the data to obtain hardness.
Figure 3 is a schematic representation of the inden-
tation process. For the calculation of hardness under
load, it is necessary to determine the plastic depth
(hplnrtic).As illustrated in Fig. 3, we have defined the
plastic depth as the depth of indenter in contact with the
sample under load. With knowledge of the indenter ge-
ometry, the plastic depth can then be used to obtain the
FIG. 3. Schematic representation of
final the indenting process illustrating the
decrease in indentation depth upon
unloading.
AFTER UNLOADING
IP address: 129.100.58.76
 M. F. Doerner and W. D. Nix: Interpretingthe data from depth-sensing indentation instruments
ALUMINUM
LINEAR UNLOADING
---c_-
200 400 600 800 1000 1200
DEPTH (nm)
FIG. 4. Indentation loading curve for pure ( 100) aluminum showing
linear unloading.
projected area in contact with the indenter. If the final
depth rather than the plastic depth is used, a significant
overestimate of the hardness will result due to the signif-
icant decrease in depth during elastic re~overy.~
The plastic depth can be obtained from the load-
displacement curve in the following way. Referring to
Fig. 2, a line is fit tangent to the unloading curve at
maximum load and extrapolated to zero load. The x
intercept is then the plastic depth. This method assumes
that during initial unloading the area in contact with the
indenter remains constant. Constant contact area im-
plies linear unloading, which for metals is observed over
most of the unloading range (Fig. 4). For materials with
higher ratios of hardness to elastic modulus, more cur-
vature is observed in the unloading curve. However,
even for silicon where large elastic recoveries are ob-
served (Fig. 5 ) , linear unloading is observed for rerno-,
Val of at least f of the maximum load. The loss of contact
with the indenter is a result of the change in shape of the
< l l D Silicon
./
DEPTH (nml
FIG. 5 . Indentation loading curve for (1 11) silicon. Unloading is
linear for removal of 4 of the maximum load.
J. Mater. Res., Vol. 1, No. 4,Jul/Aug 1986
http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 11 Feb 2015
I
indentation that occurs when the elastic displacements
I are recovered.
c
IV. ELASTIC PROPERTIES
The slope of the unloading curve can be used as a
measure of the elastic properties of the sample. If the
area in contact remains constant during initial unload-
ing, the elastic behavior may be modeled as that of a
t blunt punch indenting an elastic solid. Loubet et aL2
adopted the solution of Sneddon6for the elastic defor-
mation of an isotropic elastic material with a flat-ended
cylindrical punch. By equating the projected area in
contact under the indenter to the area of the punch, they
obtained for a Vickers indenter
-=(+)
dP 1/2
DEE,,
dh
where
and where dP /dh is the slope of the unloading curve, D
is the Vickers diagonal length, E and v are Young’s mo-
dulus and Poisson’s ratio for the sample, and Eo and vo
are the same parameters for the indenter. If we assume
that the indenter had an ideal pyramidal geometry and
use the plastic depth h,, instead of the diagonal length,
we obtain
dh - 1
I___-
rr
dP 2h, 24.5
( )‘”ir,
_.
(3)
where dh /dPis the reciprocal of the unloading slope, or
the compliance. Since the area to depth relationship is
equivalent for both the triangular and Vickers pyra-
mids, Eq. ( 3 ) holds for both of these cases.
From Eq. ( 3 ) , it can be seen that a plot of the mea-
sured compliance versus the reciprocal of the plastic
depth should yield a straight line with slope equal to
0.179/E,. Young’s modulus can then be calculated, pro-
vided Poisson’sratio is known. However, it is not neces-
sary to know the value of Poisson’s ratio with great pre-
cision to obtain a good value of Young’s modulus. In
addition, the y intercept of the compliance versus reci-
procal plastic depth plot should give any additional
compliance which is independent of the contact area.
This includes the compliance of the loading column re-
ferred to earlier, along with any additional compliance
associated with the mounting of the sample.
W. INDENTER SHAPE CALlBRATlON
Knowledge of the exact shape of the pyramidal dia-
mond indenter is critical to the determination of both
plastic and elastic properites. Since the indenter is quite
blunt, direct imaging of indentations of small size in the
603
IP address: 129.100.58.76
 M. F. Doerner and W. D. Nix: Interpreting the data from depth-sensing indentation instruments

100 nm 70 nm
DEEP DEEP
FIG. 6 . Transmission electron micrographs of carbon replicas obtained from indentations in annealed a-brass.

SEM is difficult. Therefore, the method of Pethica et al.' 1 o8

was adopted for indenter shape calibration. This meth- INDENTER SHAPE CALIBRATION
od consists of making two-stage carbon replicas of in-
dentations in a soft material and imaging them in the
TEM.
For this study, a series of indentations of varying
size were produced in annealed a-brass. Cellulose ace-
tate replicating tape was applied to the sample with a
drop of acetone. Platinum with 20% palladium was
used as a shadowing agent. The indentations were ori-
ented such that one side of the triangular perimeter of
each indentation was perpendicular to the shadowing
.--.
cu
E
,c
v

(0
Io7
I Measured s h a j

direction. A shadowing angle of 19"was used. Following a,

L
shadowing, a carbon film was evaporated onto the re- a
plica and the cellulose acetate removed by dissolving in
acetone.
The prepared replicas were then imaged at zero tilt
in the transmitted electron mode in the TEM. The areas
of the indentations were measured (using a graphics
tablet and software for calculating the area of closed /
I
curve) and compared to the plastic depths as measured lo4 ' --: . . --: . " . - L

using the Nanoindenter. Examples of two indentations 10 102 lo3 lo4

imaged by this technique are shown in Fig. 6. Optical
measurements of large indentations in pure aluminum D e p t h (nm)
were also used. A second order polynomial fit of the FIG. 7. Shape of the diamond indenter at the tip as determined by the
data in four depth ranges was used to specify the shape. TEM replica technique.

604 J. Mater. Res., Vol. 1, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1986

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 11 Feb 2015 IP address: 129.100.58.76

 M. F. Doerner and W. D. Nix: Interpretingthe data from depth-sensing indentation instruments

line with slope related to Young's modulus. Since Eq.

<ill>
Silicon
( 3 ) was derived for the ideal indenter geometry, it is
necessary to correct the data using an effective depth.
The effective depth is the depth needed for a pyramid of
ideal geometry to obtain a projected contact area equi-
rn I \ I valent to that of the real pyramid. Since the ideal geome-
try area is 24.5h *, the effective depth can be obtained
from

I J where the area is obtained from the shape calibration

100 200 300 400 500 600
DEPTH (nm)
FIG. 8. Hardness as a function of indentation depth for mechanically
polished silicon illustratingthe importance of accurately determining
the shape of the tip of the indenter.
VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Indenter shape calibration
The results of the indenter shape calibration are
shown in Fig. 7. The importance of accurate indenter
shape calibration is clearly demonstrated in the hard-
ness data for ( 111) silicon shown in Fig. 8. These data
were obtained from individual indentations, such as that
shown in Fig. 5 , with a 10 s hold at maximum load. Use
of the ideal geometry results in a large overestimate of
the hardness at small depths since the indenter tip is
considerably more blunt than the ideal pyramid. With
correction for the indenter geometry, the hardness is
seen to be independent of the depth of indentation.
Determination of the indenter geometry is also im-
portant to the measurement of elastic properties. From
Eq. (31, a plot of the measured compliance versus the
reciprocal of the plastic depth should yield a straight
and the true plastic depth. Compliance data were ob-
tained for mechanically polished tungsten from the un-
loading slopes of indentations in the range of 40-800 nm
in depth. Figure 9 shows the compliance as a function of
reciprocal plastic depth with and without the indenter
shape correction. It is evident that the shape calibration
is also quite critical to the determination of elastic prop-
erties.
B. Elastic properties
Calculation of Young's modulus from the slope of
the line in Fig. 9 gives a value of 480 GPa, which com-
pares reasonably well to the known modulus of tungsten
(420 GPa). Poisson's ratio was taken to be Y = 0.28 for
this calculation. The smally intercept of about 0.3 nm/
mN can be attributed to additional compliances due to
the loading column and sample mounting.
Comparison of the predicted and measured slopes
for a range of materials is given in Fig. 10. In the case of
single crystals, Young's modulus in the indentation di-
rection is used for comparison. Since for cubic crystals,
3 . 0.
-
/
/
7 2. 5 "

ell>Al <lOO>Al
Q
(L
k
TUNGSTEN v
2. 0 s102
W
CORRECTED x a
UNCORRECTED o 0
-J 1.5 .
cn
OOO>Si
1.0 "

U all>Si
3
cn

r
.Ol .02 .03
I
-=I*
W
t
7%
0. 0 . . : ~

l/OEPTH (nrn)

FIG. 9. The complianceplotted as a function of the reciprocal of the FIG. 10. Comparison of the predicted slope, 0.179/E,, from Eq. ( 3 )
plastic depth for mechanically polished tungsten. Data corrected for to the measured slope obtained from compliance versus Vdepth plots
indenter geometry are linear with a slope related to Young's modulus. for a range of materials.

J. Mater. Res., Vol. 1, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1986 605

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 11 Feb 2015 IP address: 129.100.58.76

 M. F. Ooerner and W. D. Nix: lnterpretinq the data from depth-sensing indentation instruments

Poisson’s ratio is constant in the (111) and (100)

planes, this value was used. Agreement of the data with
the predictions is relatively good. The measured slopes 5
-.
E
T ’
40 - 5
t
silicon wafer
60 nm W on Si
W Films on S i

generally indicate values for Young’s modulus which I 100 nm I on Si

are higher than actual values. Since tungsten, silicon

and SiO, all have high ratios of hardness to elastic mo-
dulus, large compressive elastic strains are obtained un-
der the indenter. These may lead to measurements in a
nonlinear elastic regime. For example, using the third-
order elastic constants for germanium,’ one can show
that an estimated hydrostatic pressure of 10 GPa would
reduce the parameter ( 1 - v 2 ) / Eby 23% and 1 1 % for A

the (1 11) and ( 100) directions, respectively. Also, since
the projected area of the indenter is not circular, but
triangular, a modifying factor may be required in Eq.
( 3 ) . This effect would also cause the measured modulus
to be higher than that predicted. In addition, since the
model used here is for isotropic elasticity, effects of an-
isotropy may cause the data to deviate from expected
values. For example, measurements of E(,,, for both
silicon and aluminum show larger deviations from the
expected values than do E ( , l l )The. agreement of the
data with known values is encouraging, however, and
lends credence to the method for removal of the elastic
displacements in the calculation of hardness.
One example of elastic property measurements us-
ing the Nanoindenter is in the study of phases and mi-
crostructures produced by thin film deposition. Figure
11 shows data obtained for YCo, films deposited by
magnetron sputtering under different conditions. The
“amorphous” film was deposited from a single target
onto an unheated substrate ( T,ub\iratr ~ 3 5 3K ) . The
TEM investigations show the structure to be mostly
amorphous with some small crystallites. The “crystal-
line’’ film was deposited by layering material from Y
and Co targets with the substrate heated to 753 K. The
microstructure consists of mostly fine-grained (20 nm)
03
l / D E P T H (nm)
FIG. 12. Compliance data for sputtered films of tungsten on (100)
silicon.
polycrystalline YCo,. A significant difference in
Young’s modulus is observed for the crystalline and
amorphous phases. The higher stiffness of the crystal-
line phase compared to the amorphous phase is com-
monly observed for other systems.’
One advantage of determining the elastic properties
as a function of indentation depth, is that it permits the
influence of the substrate on the measurement to be de-
tected. As already demonstrated, the plot of compliance
versus reciprocal effective plastic depth is linear for bulk
materials or relatively thick films. However, as the in-
dentation depth approaches the dimensions of the film
thickness, the influence of the substrate can be detected
as a deviation from linearity in the data. This effect is
due to the changing contributions of the film and sub-
strate to the measured compliance. Figure 12 illustrates
this effect for sputtered tungsten on (100) silicon. The
compliance as a function of reciprocal effective plastic
depth is plotted for tungsten films of various thicknesses

r
_ A _ ._ _ L _ _ _ ~

YOUNG’S ~0)oUcUSDETERMINATION 7 I

401 t
YCo2 FILMS

I
E
-
w 30 / i

I I
.Ol .02 .03 .Ol .02 .03
l/OEPTH (nml l/DEPTH (nm)
FIG. 1 I . Young’s modulus determination for amorphous (deposited FIG. 13. Comparison of compliance data for tungsten films on silicon
at 353 K ) and crystalline (deposited at 753 K ) films of YCo,. to curves generated from empirical model [ Eiq. ( 5 ) ] with a = 0.25.

606 J. Mater. Res., Vol. 1, No. 4, Jul/Aug 1986

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 11 Feb 2015 IP address: 129.100.58.76

 M. F. Doerner and W. D. Nix: Interpreting the data from depth-sensing indentation instruments

15
HARDNESS
- Calculated from Depth
o FPOD Measured l s e a

-m Final Wth
--
0

g
v
10 P l a s t i c lbpth -0
FIG. 14. Comparison of hardness
Ln calculated from various indentation
m depths obtained from the Nanoin-
w denter, to hardness obtained from
Z
0 measured areas in the SEM. The
a measured areas show good agree-
a 5 - D
ment with hardness calculated from
I
the plastic depth.

100 200 300 400 500 600 70(

DEPTH (nm)

along with data for bulk tungsten and silicon. For small
indentation depths relative to the film thickness, the
data approaches that expected for bulk tungsten since
the indenter samples the film only. For larger indenta-
tions, the data approaches that expected for bulk silicon.
The influence of the substrate on the elastic mea-
surements can be modeled empirically using
where thesubscriptsf; s, and Orefer to the film, substrate
and indenter, respectively. The film thickness is rand b,
is the intercept obtained for the bulk substrate. This
equation is similar to Eq. ( 3 ) . except for the weighting
factors, exp( - at /he, ) and 1 - exp( - at / h e r ) ,
which have been added to account for the changing con-
tributions of the substrate and film to the compliance.
The factor a is an empirically determined constant.
Equation ( 5 ) is plotted in Fig. 13 for a = 0.25 and using
values of ( 1 - d ) / E for silicon and tungsten as mea-
sured with the Nanoindenter [ ( I - d ) / E is
4 . 7 1 x 1 0 - ' 2 Pa-' and 1.93X Pa-' for silicon
and tungsten, respectively 1. Good agreement between
the data and the model are obtained.
to allow imaging in the SEM. Figure 14 shows the hard-
ness calculated using the final depth, plastic depth (un-
loading intercept), and maximum indentation depth for
four indentations of each size. The hardness results cal-
culated from the areas measured by SEM are also
shown. As seen from Fig. 14, the results obtained from
the measured areas agree quite well with the plastic
depth predictions.
Figure 15 shows hardness measurements for
METGLASO 2826 ribbon obtained using both the
Nanoindenter and a Leitz microhardness tester at 25,
50, and 100 g loads. The data from the Nanoindenter
were obtained from indentations of different sizes after
holding at maximum load for 10 s. During indentation,
the displacement rate was held constant in the range 3 4
nm/s. The microhardness testing was done with 15 s
15
METGLAS 2826
I

C. Hardness results
A series of indentations in METGLASO 2826 rib- I J
bon were produced to verify that the intercept of the 0 5 1 .o 1.5 2 0
tangent to the unloading curve is the correct measure of DEPTH lpm)
the plastic depth under load. In this case, relatively large FIG. 15. Comparison of hardness data for METGLASO 2826 ribbon
(deeper than 250 nm) indentations were made in order obtained using the Nanoindenter and a Leitz microhardness tester.

J. Mater. Res., Vol. 1. No. 4, JuVAug 1986 607

http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 11 Feb 2015 IP address: 129.100.58.76

 M. F. Doerner and W. D. Nix: Interpreting the data from depth-sensing indentation instruments
t
I __
100 200 300 400
DEPTH [nm)
FIG. 16. Hardness data for a-brass obtained from data along the load-
ingcurve from four indentations. Curve B isobtained when the elastic
displacements are removed. Curve A is calculated assuming the elastic
displacements to be negligible.
descent and 10 s hold times. For comparison, the micro-
hardness is calculated as load divided by projected area
instead of the traditional Vickers hardness (load/con-
tact area). Considering the major differences between
the two techniques, relatively good agreement is ob-
tained. The conventional microhardness results are
about 10% lower than those of the Nanoindenter. Some
of this decrease, however, may be due to the effect of
indentation size on hardness which has been observed
for crystalline materials.'
In addition to obtaining the hardness at the point of
maximum depth for each indentation, the data along the
loading curve can be used to generate hardness as a func-
tion of depth. This allows the depth dependence to be
determined from a single indentation. In order to do
this, it is necessary to estimate the elastic displacements
as a function of depth. The elastic compliance at any
depth can be calculated from the compliance at maxi-
mum depth as
where b is the y intercept from the compliance versus
Vdepth plot. If they intercept has not been determined
from previous data, it can generally be assumed to be
zero with little resulting error. Equation ( 6 ) requires an
iterative solution using the shape calibration to deter-
mine he, from h, and using
(7)
where h and P are the measured depth and load along
the loading curve.
Figure 16 shows hardness caluclated as a function
of depth using the above method for four indentations in
annealed a-brass. Also plotted are the values of hard-
608 J. Mater. Res.,Vol. 1. No. 4, Jul/Aug 1986
http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 11 Feb 2015
BRASS
. Calculated from d a t a a l o n g loading CUPYE
from f o w m e n t a t i o n s
100 200 300 4c
DEPTH (nm)
FIG. 17. Comparison of hardness obtained from data along the load-
ing curve to that obtained from individual indentations held at maxi-
mum load for 10 s.
ness that would be calculated if the elastic displace-
ments were not removed. It is more important to remove
the elastic displacements at smaller depths since the
compliance increases as the area in contact with the in-
denter decreases. It is also possible to compare the hard-
nesses generated along the loading curve from those ob-
tained at maximum depth from many indentations of
varying size. Figure 17 shows this comparison for a-
brass. The error bars indicate & 1 standard deviation
for indentations held at maximum load for 10 s. The
data generated from the loading curves deviate signifi-
cantly from those obtained from individual indentations
at small depths. This result can be explained by a strain
rate effect. Since testing was performed at constant dis-
placement rate and the strain rate can be defined as
(;
e = c --
. 3
where c is a constant," the strain rate becomes very high
(8)
as the indentation size decreases. AS shown in Fig. 17,
the stress relaxation (under the indenter) during the 10
s hold time is greatest for the smallest indentations with
the highest strain rates. It is clear from this that the
strain rate sensitivity can contribute to the hardness size
effect.
VII. SUMMARY
Depth-sensing indentation instruments provide a
means for studying the plastic and elastic properties of
thin films. The elastic displacements can be subtracted
from the load-displacement data to calculate hardness.
Young's modulus can be calculated from the slope of the
linear portion of the unloading curve. In addition, the
influence of the elastic properties of the substrate can be
observed in the testing of thin films.
IP address: 129.100.58.76
 M. F. Doerner and W. D. Nix: Interpreting the data from depth-sensing indentation instruments
Hardness can be calculated from data along the
loading curve, allowing the depth dependence of the
hardness to be obtained from one indentation. The effect
of strain rate on the measured hardness obtained in this
way can be significant.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are grateful to D. Gardner and D.
Webb, both of Stanford, for preparation of the sputtered
W and YCo, films, respectively. The work was support-
ed in part by the Thin Films Thrust Program of the
NSF/MRL Program at Stanford University.
J. Mater. Res., Vol. 1, No. 4, JuVAug 1986
http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 11 Feb 2015
REFERENCES
'J. Pethica, R. Hutchings, and W. C. Oliver, Philos. Mag. A 48, 593
(1983).
'J. L. Loubet, J. M. Georges, J. M. Marchesini, and G. Meille, J.
Tribology 106,43 ( 1984) .
'P. E. Wierengaand A. J. J. Frenken, J. Appl. Phys. 55,4244 (1984).
4D.Newey, M. A. Wilkins, and H. M. Pollock, J. Phys. E 15, 119
(1982).
'N. A. Stilwell and D. Tabor, P r w . Phys. Soc. London 78, 169
(1961).
'1. N. Sneddon, Int. J. Eng. Sci. 3,47 ( 1965).
'E. H. Bogardus, J. Appl. Phys. 36,2504( 1965).
'B. S. Berry, Metallic Glasses (American Society of Metals, Metals
Park, Ohio, 1978), pp. 161-189.
9G.P. Upit and S. A. Varchenya, ThcScienceofHardness Testingand
Its Research Applications (American Society of Metals, Metals Park,
OH, 1971) pp. 135-146.
"'S. Hannula, D. Stone, and C. Li (unpublished work).
609
IP address: 129.100.58.76