Molecular dynamics simulation and experiments of nano-indentation of single crystal silicon (111) plane

To investigate micro mechanisms of brittle material single crystal silicon (111) plane from an atomic level, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was used to analyze diamond nano-indention process. In this paper a new method was set up to investigate the indentation process through computing average potential and radial distribution function (RDF) of workpiece at the same time. The results show that lattices phase transformation occurs around the diamond indenter tip in the workpiece. It is also found that the deformed area has about 27% elastic recovery through comparing motions of demarcation line which represents the dislocation motions inner workpiece. The nano-indentation experiments were carried out by Tribo-indenter made by Hysitron Incorporated Company. Comparison of reduced modulus values between simulation and experiments is conducted and the results indicate that the simulation error rate is smaller than 31%.