Nanoscale elastic modulus mapping revisited: The concept of effective mass

Abstract

We introduce the effective mass of the nanoindenter tip/sample assembly into the nanoscale dynamic modulus mapping technique that allows us to extract the correct storage modulus from the measured contact stiffness. We show that the developed approach successfully works for both stiff ceramics, such as fused quartz, and much compliant polymer materials, such as polycarbonate (PC) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA).