Nanoindentation of Silicon

The nanoindentation behaviours of single crystalline silicon samples has gained wide attention in recent years, because of the anomaly effects in the loading curve, caused by the pressure induced phase transformation of silicon. To further enlighten the phenomenon bulk, ion-implanted, single crystalline Si samples have been studied by nanoindentation and by atomic force microscopy. The implantation of Si wafers was carried out by P+ ions at 40 KeV accelerating voltage and 80 ions/cm2 dose, influencing the defect density and structure of the Si material in shallow depth at the surface. Our experiments provide Young’s modulus and hardness data measured with Berkovich-, spherical- and cube corner indenters, statistics of the pop-in and pop-out effects in the loading- and unloading process, and interesting results about the piling-up behaviour of the Si material.