Coupled electromigration–nanoindentation study on dislocation nucleation in SrTiO$_3$

Modern functional oxides are mainly engineered by doping, essentially by tuning the defect chemistry. Recent studies suggest that dislocations offer a new perspective for enhancing the mechanical and physical properties of ceramic oxides. This raises the question regarding the interaction between dislocations and point defects in ceramics. Here, we report the impact of defect chemistry on the mechanical response of single-crystal strontium titanate, a prototype perovskite oxide. We demonstrate that electric field-induced stoichiometry polarization alters the defect chemistry, primarily by tuning oxygen vacancies, resulting in a distinct difference in the maximum shear stresses for dislocation nucleation, as experimentally observed and corroborated by molecular dynamic simulation. The impact of indenter tip size and geometry on the dislocation nucleation behavior in samples with different point defect concentrations in ceramics is further elucidated. Similar to the electromigration findings, acceptor-doped SrTiO3 facilitates dislocation nucleation due to the abundance of oxygen vacancies. These findings shed new light on the interaction between dislocations and point defects in oxides. They may pave the road for assessing the stability of the next-generation functional ceramics engineered by dislocations.