Enhancement in nanohardness of soda-lime-silica glass

► Improvement in nanohardness of soda-lime-silica glass cover slip with loading rate. ► Presence of shear induced serrations in load-depth plots. ► Number of serrations depend on loading rate. ► Shear induced flow due to local weakness provided by network modifiers. ► Shear band observed inside the nanoindentation cavity by scanning probe microscopy.