Anisotropic distribution of residual strain around conical nanoindentation in silicon

Abstract

Residual strain around conical nanoindentations on silicon single crystals is mapped by electronic backscatter diffraction system and CrossCourt software. Both of the (001) and (111) planes display anisotropic strain features adjacent to nanoindentations in specific crystallographic orientations with strain resolutions of 3.5×10−4 and 3.3×10−4 for Si(001) and (111) surfaces, respectively. The anisotropic distributions of most strain components induced by isotropic load present central symmetry, which are related to the crystallographic orientation and slip system in silicon microstructures according to the Schmid law. The indentation deformation of single-crystal Si is a process of dislocation slip on specific plane in specific direction.