Abstract

Quantitative measurements of the elastic modulus of nanosize systems and nanostructured materials are provided with great accuracy and precision by contact-resonance atomic force microscopy (CR-AFM). As an example of measuring the elastic modulus of nanosize entities, we used the CR-AFM technique to measure the out-of-plane indentation modulus of tellurium nanowires. A size-dependence of the indentation modulus was observed for the investigated tellurium nanowires with diameters in the range 20–150 nm. Over this diameter range, the elastic modulus of the outer layers of the tellurium nanowires experienced significant enhancement due to a pronounced surface stiffening effect. Quantitative estimations for the elastic moduli of the outer and inner parts of tellurium nanowires of reduced diameter are made with a core–shell structure model. Besides localized elastic modulus measurements, we have also developed a unique CR-AFM imaging capability to map the elastic modulus over a micrometer-scale area. We used this CR-AFM capability to construct indentation modulus maps at the junction between two adjacent facets of a tellurium microcrystal. The clear contrast observed in the elastic moduli of the two facets indicates the different surface crystallography of these facets.

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