Vickers microhardness and indentation creep studies for erbium-doped ZnO nanoparticles

Abstract

The effect of erbium (Er) doping on the structural, magnetic and mechanical properties of Zn1−xErxO, with 0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.10, samples was studied using X-ray powder diffraction, M–H magnetic hysteresis and digital Vickers microhardness tester, respectively. The samples were prepared by wet chemical co-precipitation method. Vickers microhardness (Hv) measurements were carried out at different applied loads (0.25–10 N) and dwell times (t = 10–60 s) to study the mechanical performance of the samples. Experimental results of Hv were analyzed using Meyer’s law, and modeled according to Hays–Kendall, elastic/plastic deformation, modified proportional specimen resistance (MPSR) and Indentation Induced Cracking models. It was observed that the MPSR model was the most appropriate model for describing the load independent microhardness data of Er-doped ZnO nanoparticle samples. Indentation creep behavior of Zn1−xErxO samples was studied at room temperature by measuring the variation of Hv with the dwell times (t = 10–60 s) at fixed applied loads F = 1, 5 and 10 N, respectively. The results showed that Er-doped ZnO nanoparticles samples possessed grain boundary sliding and dislocation climbs at low loads followed by dislocation creep for higher loads within the operative creep mechanism.