Figure 4

Stiffness of silicon nanowire, k _NW, with its diameter of 525 nm as a function of indentation force, F. It is shown that the relationship between k _NW and F is well described by a scaling of k _NW = αF ^1/3, where α is a constant parameter depending on nanowire geometry. It implies that nanoindentation of silicon nanowire is well described by classical elasticity theory such as Hertz theory