Mechanical properties of RF magnetron sputtering ZnO thin film by nanoindentation

The mechanical properties of radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering epitaxial ZnO thin film on aluminum and diamond substrates were investigated by nanoindentation. Comparing the different substrates, we are able to assess the mechanical properties of the film on nanoindentation response. Though the elastic modulus and hardness values of the film are consistent on different substrates, the experimental results are distributed with a range of E (approximately 20-55 GPa) and H (approximately 0.4-2.5 GPa) due to amorphous structure even the indentation depth less than half of film thickness(1 microm).