Abstract
Change of electrical resistance of the structure n + ITO-SiO2-nSi subject to external mechanical stress created by the cyclic indentation was studied in the present work. The consideration was taken of the two factors contributing to this phenomenon, as well as the contribution of each of them in the change of conductivity during indentation. It was found out that the first factor, i.e. phase transformations under indenter, is responsible for only one third of the total change of conductivity of silicon. While the bigger part of the change of silicon conductivity, is, most probably, due to the second factor, i.e. the effect of the change of silicon piezoresistance in the process of loading-unloading of the sample during nanoindentaton.