Minimum Threshold for Incipient Plasticity in the Atomic-Scale Nanoindentation of Au(111)

Abstract

The formation of the smallest permanent indentation in a Au(111) surface is studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy in ultrahigh vacuum. The 9.5 nm radius W(111) indenter was characterized in situ by field ion microscopy. Elastic and plastic indentations are identified both in the residual impression image and by features in their force-displacement curves such as the sink-in depth, pop-ins, and hysteresis energy. Plasticity is best identified quantitatively in the force-displacement curves by the sink-in depth. The minimum of plastic damage producible in the substrate is associated with an energy budget of ∼70 eV.

Plastic deformation in nanoindentation of tantalum: A new mechanism for prismatic loop formation

“…There are many related studies on Au nanoindentation [19]. Elastic and plastic indentations were identified both in the residual impression images and by features in their force-displacement curves such as the sink-in depth, pop-ins and hysteresis energy but there are still many open questions [20].…”

FIM tips in SPM: Apex orientation and temperature considerations on atom transfer and diffusion

“…Experiments were carried out in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) at room temperature and at 158 K (temperature of the tip and sample during both FIM and STM). Au(111) substrates were prepared by epitaxial growth of Au on mica to a thickness of 100 nm (these samples were rigidly anchored in order to minimize tip-sample mechanical noisethey were not mounted in the cantilevered geometry used elsewhere [3,4]). The Au(111) surfaces were cleaned by repeated 1 keV Ne + ion sputtering and annealing cycles in UHV to several cycles beyond the disappearance of carbon in Auger electron spectroscopy.…”

“…FIM tips offer great potential for the understanding of contrast mechanisms in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) where the atomic configuration of the tip is expected to be of great importance [2], but is usually experimentally uncharacterizable. These tips are also well suited for atomicscale nanoindentation where the tip geometry is needed to understand the initiation of plasticity as well as the electronic conductance of the junction [3,4].…”

Fabrication of nano ion–electron sources and nano-probes by local electron bombardment

“…This makes single atom tips (SATs) ideal for low energy electron microscopy that would enable the characterization of biological molecules or fragile nano structures with minimal risk. Nanotips with a well-defined shape of nano or atomic scales are also crucial for manipulating and characterizing molecules and nano objects in scanning probe microscope (SPM) [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Furthermore, in multi-probe SPM, multiple probes are needed to be brought in close vicinity to form physical contacts with nano objects [20,21].…”