Cryogenic nanoindentation size effect in [0 0 1]-oriented face-centered cubic and body-centered cubic single crystals

Cryogenic nanoindentation experiments performed on [0 0 1]-oriented single crystalline Nb, W, Al, and Au in an in situ nanomechanical instrument with customized cryogenic testing capability revealed temperature dependence on nanoindentation size effect. The Nix-Gao model, commonly used to capture indentation size effect at room temperature, does not take into account thermal effects and hence is not able to explain these experimental results where both hardness at infinite indentation depth and characteristic material length scale were found to be strong functions of temperature. Physical attributes are critically examined in the framework of intrinsic lattice resistance and dislocation cross-slip probability.