Abstract Modern nanofabrication processes on metals, polymers, and ceramics often require deforming these materials at strain rates ranging ~101 – 107 s–1. Therefore, there is a need to develop an appropriate methodology capable of measuring and predicting the effects of these deformation rates on the final mechanical response of the nanomaterial being processed. Here we report an experimental study of the indentation response of three materials with different nature and mechanical properties, but with known time-dependent mechanical responses. These materials allow validation of the findings under a wide variety of conditions. One metal (Pb), and two polymers (PMMA and PS), were indented at the sub-20 nm scale using commercial atomic force microscopy (AFM) probes. Based on our experimental findings, we also propose an analytical model for creeping solids in which their nanoscale mechanical behavior is completely described by two components: an elastic component (characterized by the Hertz contact model) and a time-dependent component (characterized by a power-law model). The proposed experimental protocol is easy to implement, and the analytical model can be extended to a large variety of materials. The ability to characterize the time-dependence of the mechanical response of different materials at the nanoscale will enable a better estimation of the effect of manufacturing processes on the properties and performance of nanomaterials.

中文翻译：

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`纳米尺度上的时间相关机械响应

摘要 金属、聚合物和陶瓷的现代纳米制造工艺通常需要以 ~101 – 107 s–1 的应变率使这些材料变形。因此，需要开发一种适当的方法，能够测量和预测这些变形率对被加工纳米材料的最终机械响应的影响。在这里，我们报告了对具有不同性质和机械性能但具有已知时间相关机械响应的三种材料的压痕响应的实验研究。这些材料允许在各种条件下验证结果。一种金属 (Pb) 和两种聚合物（PMMA 和 PS）使用商业原子力显微镜 (AFM) 探针在亚 20 纳米尺度上缩进。根据我们的实验结果，我们还提出了蠕变固体的分析模型，其中它们的纳米级机械行为完全由两个分量描述：弹性分量（以赫兹接触模型为特征）和时间相关分量（以幂律模型为特征）。所提出的实验协议易于实现，并且分析模型可以扩展到多种材料。在纳米尺度上表征不同材料的机械响应的时间依赖性的能力将能够更好地估计制造过程对纳米材料的性质和性能的影响。一个弹性分量（以赫兹接触模型为特征）和一个瞬态分量（以幂律模型为特征）。所提出的实验协议易于实现，并且分析模型可以扩展到多种材料。在纳米尺度上表征不同材料的机械响应的时间依赖性的能力将能够更好地估计制造过程对纳米材料的性质和性能的影响。一个弹性分量（以赫兹接触模型为特征）和一个瞬态分量（以幂律模型为特征）。所提出的实验协议易于实现，并且分析模型可以扩展到多种材料。在纳米尺度上表征不同材料的机械响应的时间依赖性的能力将能够更好地估计制造过程对纳米材料的性质和性能的影响。