Nanoindentation of Brittle Solids

Glass and ceramics are brittle in nature, but are often used in electronics, space, defense, biomedical, and many day-to-day applications, where mechanical disintegration may cause total failure of the application. Evaluation and in-depth knowledge of nanomechanical characterization helps to improve process parameters or may help identify the critical failure point. Therefore, it is important to measure mechanical properties such as hardness and Young’s modulus at the local microstructural length scale. This book presents a collection of recent research findings of nanoindentation issues in brittle materials.