Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2011
Activation volumes for plastic deformation of fcc metals are measured using nanoindentation. Materials include bulk, polycrystalline aluminum and α-brass, and sputtered copper and nickel thin films on silicon substrates. From a hardness measurement, V* is defined as 9kBT/∂H/∂ln , where H is the hardness and is a representative strain rate beneath the indenter. Data obtained using nanoindentation are consistent with those obtained using more conventional experiments based on uniaxial loading.