A new tip area function for instrumented nanoindentation at extremely small contact depths

The accuracy of measurement of mechanical properties of a material using instrumented nanoindentation at extremely small penetration depths heavily relies on the determination of the contact area of the indenter. Our experiments have demonstrated that the conventional area function could lead to a significant error when the contact depth was below 40 nm, due to the singularity in the first derivation of the function in this region and thus, the resultant unreasonable sharp peak on the function curve. In this paper, we proposed a new area function that was used to calculate the contact area for the indentations where the contact depths varied from 10 to 40 nm. The experimental results have shown that the new area function has produced better results than the conventional function.

► Identification of singularity in conventional area function for nanoindentation.
► Development of a new area function that has removed the singularity.
► Significant improvement of measurement accuracy by the new area function.