Nano Express
Nanoindentation of GaSe thin films
Author affiliations
1 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, I-Shou University, Main Campus No.1, Sec. 1, Syuecheng Rd., Dashu District, Kaohsiung, 84001, Taiwan
2 Department of Electrophysics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan
Citation and License
Nanoscale Research Letters 2012, 7:403 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-7-403
Published: 17 July 2012Abstract
The structural and nanomechanical properties of GaSe thin films were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and nanoindentation techniques. The GaSe thin films were deposited on Si(111) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. XRD patterns reveal only the pure (000 l)-oriented reflections originating from the hexagonal GaSe phase and no trace of any impurity or additional phases. Nanoindentation results exhibit discontinuities (so-called multiple ‘pop-in’ events) in the loading segments of the load–displacement curves, and the continuous stiffness measurements indicate that the hardness and Young’s modulus of the hexagonal GaSe films are 1.8 ± 0.2 and 65.8 ± 5.6 GPa, respectively.
