Nanoindentation on a Ni Nanodot-Patterned Surface

Nanoindentation on a Ni nanodot-patterned surface (NDPS) was investigated experimentally and numerically. The Ni NDPS consists of well-ordered arrays of Ni nanodots with approximately the same size and shape. The nanoindentation experiments were performed on the Ni NDPS using diamond tips of 1 and 5 μm radii of curvature. To efficiently simulate large number of nanodots in contact, numerical simulations were carried out using formulae empirically fitted from a finite element (FE) study of a single spherical contact. The simulation results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental results.