Evaluation of elasto-plastic properties of ITO film using combined nanoindentation and finite element approach

Here we report for the first time the combined nanoindentation experiments and finite element modeling to investigate the in-depth nanomechanical behavior of ~1.25 μm indium tin oxide (ITO) film. The ITO film is grown on silicon substrate by a reactive direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering technique. Here, the contributions of both film and substrate are considered in a power law based nonlinear material model. Based on experimental data a detailed study is carried out in the present work to investigate the stress-strain behavior, the related von-Mises stress and equivalent plastic strain of the ITO film. In addition, the effect of the nanoindentation response of the ITO film on the silicon substrate is also evaluated.