PROCESS FOR DETERMINING VISCOUS, ELASTIC, PLASTIC, AND ADHESIVE (VEPA) PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS USING AFM-BASED OR CONVENTIONAL NANO-INDENTATION

摘要

A process is described for determining elastic modulus, plastic yield strain, and viscosity of a material, and the work of adhesion between the material and an indenter tip, using Atomic Force Microscopy-based or conventional nanoindentation. Specifically, the process includes a measurement method whereby a sequence of load-unload quasistatic indentations are performed in the vicinity of each chosen point on a sample. The loading- unloading curves are analyzed using a specific modeling algorithm to calculate multiple mechanical properties of the sample.