Determination of the Area Function of Nanohardness Indenters - Comparison of Two Methods

摘要

Recently the indentation method has gained ever more importance. It supplies manifold information about the mechanical properties of materials, especially of thin layers and coating systems. Investigations about the influences at the indentation method on the uncertainty of measurement clearly revealed that the geometrical deviations of the indenter predominate other influence quantities, e.g. indentation depth and test force. With regard to nanoindentation it is common to summarise the indenter's geometrical deviations in an area function. This article will show two methods for the determination of the area function of a Berkovich indenter which should, however, be also useable for other indenter geometries. Some conclusions about the comparability of both calibration methods will be given.