In this study the creep of Si in macro- and nano-volumes was investigated by means of dynamic indentation allowing monitoring the load–displacement dependences during indenter penetration/removing, including during the long lasting holding under the load. Standard indentation holding time is 5-10 s; in this study we used the loading regimes with 100 s and 900 s holding time for creep investigations in combination with 50, 100 and 500 mN loads. The indentation creep of Si was found to have a decelerating character: the creep rate is higher at the beginning of holding time, gradually decreasing within a period of time, longer for indentations made at higher load and loading rate, and finally reaching an approximately steady-state (Fig.1). The creep rate depends on the load value and loading rate being higher for higher values of them within the whole period of holding time and especially at the beginning of the creep.figureFig. 1. Creep displacement during the first 300 s of holding time for indentation made at 50 mN (a), 100 mN (b) and 500 mN (c) loads; the loading regime is the same for all measurements: loading (t1) and unloading (t3) time is 50 s, holding time under the maximum load (t2) is 900 s.Fig. 2. Relative recovery of indentation depth (Δh) for 2 type of loading regime: with short (5 s) and long (900 s) holding times and loads of 50, 100 and 500 mN.Instrumented dynamic indentation gave the possibility to investigate the kinetics of relaxation of Si during unloading in dependence of the duration of holding time. The results demonstrate a decrease of the relative value of recovery of indentation depth (Δh) with the increase of holding time (Fig. 2) that can be explained by greater contribution of plastic irreversible deformation during the creep of material, whereas the indentation recovery takes place mostly at the expense of elastic deformation. For larger load indentations the difference of Δh between short and long holding time becomes smaller due to the involvement of the crack formation process leading to the additional expulsion of the indenter form the material.