Nanoindentation of crystalline silicon pillars fabricated by soft UV nanoimprint lithography and cryogenic deep reactive ion etching

•Determination of silicon nanomechanical properties by instrumented nanoindentation.•Top-down fabrication of silicon pillar structures by nanoimprint lithography.•Precise control of inductively coupled plasma cryogenic reactive ion etching.•Qualitative and quantitative nanomechanical analysis of monocrystalline silicon with different crystal orientation.•Comparison of elastic-plastic response of bulk and micro-structured silicon materials.