Steel cantilevers provide an ability to indent a variety of materials. Indents can be made at various forces and rates, using the deflection of the cantilever as a measure of the force. An indent is made by forcing the tip into the sample surface until the specified cantilever deflection is reached. For each indent, a plot of the cantilever deflection versus the displacement in the Z direction, called a force plot, is recorded.
It is also possible to execute indentation arrays automatically using the Auto ramp command, which sets up rows and columns of indents. Automated indentation includes the ability to increment the indentation force by specifying an initial force and a force increment. The force is incremented along each row (X axis) while it is held constant in a column (Y axis). Both the number of indents and the spacing between them—in both X and Y directions—can be preset by the user prior to executing the indentation array. For each indent, the user can customize whether a force plot is recorded or not.
Figure 1: Nanoindentation sequence
Detailed instructions are available in the Procedure for Nanoindenting.
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