Hardness Measurement and Evaluation of Double-layer Films on Material Surface

A method for hardness measurement and evaluation of double-layer thin films on the material surface is proposed. Firstly, it is studied how to obtain the force-indentation response with the finite element method when the indentation is less than 100 nanometers, in which current nanoindentation experiments have no reliable accuracy. The whole hardness-displacement curve and fitted equation are obtained. At last, a formula to predict the hardness of the thin film on the material surface is derived and favorably compared with experiments.