Numerical study on the measurement of thin film mechanical properties by means of nanoindentation

Nanoindentation is a technique commonly used for measuring thin film mechanical properties such as hardness and stiffness. In this study, we used the finite element method to investigate the effect of substrate and pileup on hardness and stiffness measurements of thin film systems. We define a substrate effect factor and construct a map that may be useful in the interpretation of indentation measurements when it is not possible to make indentations shallow enough to avoid the influence of the substrate on the measurements. A new technique for measuring mechanical properties of thin films by nanoindentation is suggested at the end of this article.