Plastic flow at the theoretical yield stress in ceramic films

Using fine-grained ceramic films based on chromium nitride, and suppressing fracture by using microcompression, it is shown that plastic flow at the theoretical yield stress can be obtained in brittle materials, with shear yield stresses of ~ G/24 at room temperature, which extrapolate to ~ G/19 at 0 K. Surprisingly, it is also found that the rate of deformation, and hence the hardness and the yield stress, are determined not by the soft, glassy grain boundary phase in the fine-grained materials, but by the harder crystal phase.