This ultra-low load indentation instrument will provide excellent capability for highly spatially resolved, ultralow load indentation on a wide variety of materials, and will enable a significant enhancement and extension of existing NSF-sponsored research aimed at understanding and improving the mechanical and physical properties of advanced materials and materials systems. There is immediate need for this capability in a large number of university research activities that span a wide spectrum of materials that are synthesized by a variety of advanced techniques. The commonality of these activities, with respect to the proposed instrumentation acquisition, is that the materials under study either involve extremely small microstructural scale or are synthesized in small quantities or with small bulk dimensions (e.g. thin films, microlaminates and coatings) that severely limit the use of conventional experimental methods for the study of synthesis/structure/property relationships. Examples include, ductile phase toughening in metal/oxide microlaminates produced by ion beam deposition, film softening effects in intermetallics and refractory metals and the role of low energy ion beam assisted deposition on the synthesis and properties of carbon nitride. Other studies involve examination of the relationships between mechanical behavior and cooperative molecular relaxations in polymers to fundamental studies of mechanical properties and microstructure in ordered polymers and an investigation of the influence of damage accumulation processes during fatigue of ceramic matrix composites.
