A Combined Experimental and Numerical Study of the Effect of Surface Roughness on Nanoindentation

Gold and copper thin films are widely used in microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) devices. Nanoindentation has been developed in mechanical characterization of thin films in recent years. Several researchers have examined the effect of surface roughness on nanoindentation results. It is proved that the surface roughness has great importance in nanoindentation of thin films. In this paper, the surface topography of thin films is simulated using the extracted data from the atomic force microscopy (APM) images. Nanoindentation on a rough surface is simulated using a three-dimensional finite-element model. The results are compared with the results of finite-element analysis on a smooth surface and the experimental results. The results revealed that the surface roughness plays a key role in nanoindentation of thin films, especially at low indentation depths. There was good compatibility between the results of finite-element simulation on the rough surface and those of experiments. It is observed that on rough films, at low indentation depths, the geometry of the location where the nanoindentation is performed is of major importance.