Abstract
This paper focuses on a fundamental understanding of the plastic deformation mechanism in monocrystalline silicon subjected to nanoindentation. It was found that over a wide range of indentation loads from 100 μN to 30 mN and loading/unloading rates from 3.3 μN/s to 10 mN/s, the plasticity of silicon is mainly caused by stress-induced phase transitions. The results indicate that the critical contact pressure for phase transition at unloading is almost constant, independent of the maximum indentation load ( P max ) and loading/unloading rates. However, the shape of the load-displacement curves greatly relies on the loading/unloading conditions. In general, higher P max and lower unloading/loading rates favor an abrupt volume change and thus a discontinuity in the load-displacement curve, commonly referred to as pop-in and/or pop-out events; whereas smaller P max and rapid loading/loading processes tend to generate gradual slope changes of the curves. This study concludes that the difference in the curve shape change does not indicate the mechanism change of plastic deformation in silicon.
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