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Nanoindentation, or instrumented indentation, is a versatile technique that is most often used to measure the elastic modulus and hardness of thin film systems. It can also be employed to measure thin film adhesion energies by producing well-defined areas of delamination. When combined with the proper mechanics-based model and characterization of the failing interfaces, nanoindentation-induced delamination is a powerful tool to quantify interfacial fracture. This article highlights new improvements to the technique that build off the work of Marshall and Evans in the 1980s. Indentation-induced delamination in systems with brittle films or substrates can be a balance between causing delamination and causing through-thickness or bulk fracture. Focused ion beam cross-sectioning and confocal laser scanning microscopy were used to characterize failing interfaces, additional fracture events were observed in the load-displacement curves, and the adhesion energy was determined using not only symmetric, ideally shaped buckles, but also irregular-shaped and half-delaminated buckles.

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With the emergence of flexible electronics in the fields of medical sensors and foldable displays, there is a need to understand the interfacial behavior between active conducting elements and compliant polymer substrates, on which the devices are fabricated. Compression induced delamination is one technique that can be utilized to assess interfacial adhesion of flexible substrates that only uses the resulting buckle dimensions to quantitatively evaluate adhesion. It is found that spontaneous buckles formed in the Au film without the interlayer after deposition, while external loading is required to delaminate the Au film with the Ta adhesion layer indicating a higher adhesion energy.

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