Surprising Results of a Study on the Plasticity in Strontium Titanate

Oxides such as SrTiO 3 are expected to fail via brittle fracture at low temperatures. Surprisingly, in the present study, SrTiO 3 single crystals could be plastically deformed in compression in two temperature ranges: from 78 K to ∼1050 K and from 1500 K to 1800 K. SrTiO 3 was brittle at temperatures between these two ranges (∼1050–1500 K). This phenomenon of a ductile–brittle–ductile transition, together with microstructural investigations, suggests that the role of dislocations in the plasticity of ceramics must be reconsidered.