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Augmented instrumented indentation using nonlinear electrical contact current-voltage curves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Lei Fang ,
Christopher L. Muhlstein ,
Amber L. Romasco ,
James G. Collins  and
Lawrence H. Friedman
Lei Fang
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
James G. Collins
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
Lawrence H. Friedman*
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: lfriedman@engr.psu.edu
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Abstract

An electrical technique was recently developed to measure the in situ contact area continuously during instrumented indentation by simultaneously monitoring electrical contact response between a conductive indenter tip and a conductive sample. This technique has the potential to overcome limitations of the Oliver-Pharr method caused by the lack of a direct contact area measurement. However, the electrical contact current-voltage (I-V) curves measured from the technique were nonlinear, posing a significant challenge to inferring accurate in situ contact areas. To overcome this challenge and extend the electrical technique to more applications, various I-V curve analysis methods were investigated for their abilities to infer in situ contact area and hardness. Annealed Cu was indented using both linear and exponential loading tests. When analyzing the resulting data, the feasibility of each method was evaluated and the optimal methods to calculate the in situ contact area and hardness were determined. It was found that a simple summation of the absolute values of area under I-V curves or the area under I-V curves at positive voltages yielded the most robust area measure, whereas error in the inferred contact area was systematic and primarily from velocity dependence of the I-V response.

Keywords

Elastic propertiesElectrical propertiesHardness
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 24 , Issue 5 , May 2009 , pp. 1820 - 1832
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009

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