Measurement of surface topography and area-specific nanohardness in the scanning force microscope

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Abstract
A Scanning Force Microscope (SFM) is employed to indent and image surfaces with sub-micron resolution. The SFM image shows the area and depth of each indentation as well as its location with respect to nearby topographic surface features. The image also reveals the surface roughness, which can set a lower limit on useful nanoindentation size. A cross section of a nitrided steel surface is measured to illustrate the method. The use of the SFM with separate tip-cantilever structures for indenting and imaging has significant advantages over other nanohardness methods for the study of samples with lateral inhomogeneities.