Nanoindentation Crack Suppression and Hardness Increase in SrTiO₃ by Dislocation Engineering

Dislocations in functional oxides have sparked interest in the potential they hold for harvesting both enhanced mechanical and functional properties for next-generation electronic devices. This has motivated the recent research endeavor to achieve tunable dislocation density and plastic zone size in functional oxides. However, the dislocation density-dependent micro-/nanomechanical properties in functional ceramics have yet to be assessed, which will be critical for the design of reliable electronic devices in the near future. In this work, we use a model material, single-crystal SrTiO₃, as one of the most widely used substrates for oxide electronics, to assess the hardness and fracture behavior at micro-/nanoscale by pre-engineering the dislocation densities from ~ 10¹⁰ m^-2 up to ~ 4.0 × 10¹⁴ m^-2. We find crack suppression and enhanced hardness during nanoindentation in samples with pre-engineered dislocations. Post-indentation analysis using transmission electron microscopy revealed the critical role of pre-existing dislocations in regulating the crack suppression and increased hardness in SrTiO₃. The results can help guide the design of mechanically reliable electronics via dislocation engineering.