MEASUREMENT OF SURFACE-TOPOGRAPHY AND AREA-SPECIFIC NANOHARDNESS IN THE SCANNING FORCE MICROSCOPE

A Scanning Force Microscope (SFM) is employed to indent and image surf aces with sub-micron resolution. The SFM image shows the area and dept h of each indentation as well as its location with respect to nearby t opographic surface features. The image also reveals the surface roughn ess, which can set a lower limit on useful nanoindentation size. A cro ss section of a nitrided steel surface is measured to illustrate the m ethod. The use of the SFM with separate tip-cantilever structures for indenting and imaging has significant advantages over other nanohardne ss methods for the study of samples with lateral inhomogeneities.