Traceable Nano Indenter Standards

Micro Star can provide the Berkovich, Modified Berkovich, Cube Corner, and Vickers nano indenters as traceable standards following the definitions and tolerances of the ISO 14577-2^[1] specification. They are inspected and measured with equipment and standards traceable to the NIST^[2] or PTB^[3] and supplied with a calibration certificate containing pertinent measurement records and references.

For a comprehensive description of all Micro Star nano indenters see  the section on nano indenters.

Conductive Diamond

Micro Star has electrically conductive diamond available. The conductivity comes from Boron ions dispersed through the bulk of the material, not from a surface coating.  The measured resistivity of this diamond  is about  0.04 Ohm•m which is similar to that of graphite. The other properties of this diamond such as hardness, crystal orientation,  abrasion resistance, etc., remain unchanged within measurable limits.

There are many applications where conductivity, durability and the very sharpest point  possible with diamond tips (less than 10 nm) could not be match with other materials. These are mostly in the SPM[4] and nano technology fields.   Such are SPM cantilever probes for nano lithography, electric charge and conductivity mapping, or applications where static charge could distort the measurements and special nano indenting applications.

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Probes (STM)

A sharp conductive diamond tip for STM is one of the primary applications of conductive diamond.  This tip is not mounted on a cantilever but is bonded to the wire-like probe used in the STM modules made by Veeco, and other manufacturers.

Micro Star has conductive diamond currently in stock, but because it is rare and difficult to obtain, items made with it are more expensive than standard diamond.  Delivery time is not affected.

Please contact us for quotes, special requirements or questions, and we are always glad to help.

¹ISO 14577-2 - Instrumented indentation test for hardness and materials parameters. Part 2: Verification and calibration of testing machines.  In particular section 4: Direct verification and calibration.

² NIST - National Institute of Standard and Technology.

³ PTB - Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt  (the counterpart of NIST in Germany).

⁴ SPM - Scanning Probe Microscopy.