Elastic-plastic transition in MBE-grown GaSb semiconducting crystal examined by nanoindentation

The present paper concerns the elastic-plastic nanodeformation of Te-doped GaSb crystals grown by molecular beam epitaxy on the n-type of GaSb substrate. The conventional analysis of nanoindentation data obtained with sharp triangular (Berkovich) and spherical tip revealed the elastic modulus (E=83.07± 1.78 GPa), hardness (H=5.19±0.25 GPa) and "true hardness" (H_{T}=5.73±0.04 GPa). The registered pop-in event which indicates the elastic-plastic transition in GaSb crystal points towards the corresponding yield strength (σ_{Y}=3.8±0.1 GPa). The origin of incipient plasticity in GaSb crystal is discussed in terms of elastic-plastic deformation energy concept.