Stacking fault energy and indentation size effect: Do they interact?

To investigate the influence of the stacking fault energy (SFE) on the indentation size effect (ISE), nanoindentation was performed on silver, copper and nickel with small, intermediate and high SFE. Additionally, to analyze the impact of the SFE on the developed misorientation of the crystal, electron backscatter diffraction was performed on cross-sections fabricated through imprints of the different metals. In both experiments no evidence was found that the SFE influences the ISE or the deformation patterns below the indents. (c) 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.