Insights into Indentation Cracking at Elevated Temperatures: another ground-breaking publication with the NanoTest Xtreme

Understanding the interplay between fracture and plasticity at small scale is absolutely critical to the reliability of new materials and technologies. Researchers at the University of Oxford and their international team of collaborators have used their NanoTest Xtreme to study the high-temperature fracture behavior of 6H-SiC,  a promising material for high temperature structural applications due to its mechanical stability and inertness. They used a combination of high-temperature nanoindentation, 3D-FIB tomography, and crystal plasticity finite element modeling coupled with cohesive zone modelling, uncovering thermally-driven changes in crack morphology and reporting quantitative fracture toughness measurements at 700 °C. Led by Bo-Shiuan Li in Taiwan and David Armstrong at Oxford the study has been published Open Access in JOM: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-026-08500-5.