Extraction of the dynamic plastic behavior of AlON single crystals by nanoimpact

Investigating the dynamic mechanical behavior of single-crystal aluminum oxynitride (AlON) is fascinating and crucial for understanding material performance in relevant applications. Nevertheless, few studies have explored the dynamic mechanical properties of AlON single crystals. In this study, a series of nanoimpact experiments (representative strain rate ${\dot{\epsilon }}_{\text{r}}\text{≈}{\text{10}}^{\text{2}}{\text{s}}^{-\text{1}}$) were performed on three principal orientations ((010), (101), and (111)) of grains to extract the dynamic mechanical responses of AlON single crystals. Our results reveal that the dynamic plasticity of an AlON single crystal is governed by a combination of mechanisms, including dislocation motion and amorphization. Significantly, the localized amorphization induced by mechanical deformation has a softening effect (a lower dynamic hardness). The crystallographic orientation affects the dynamic hardness similarly to the static hardness. In particular, the (111) orientation results in the highest hardness, whereas the (010) orientation is the softest among the three principal orientations. This dependency aligns with the expectations derived from applying Schmid law. Furthermore, both the dynamic and static hardnesses exhibit typical indentation size effects (ISEs), which can be effectively described via the strain gradient theory associated with the geometrically necessary dislocations. In addition, the size and rate dependencies of the dynamic hardness can be decoupled into two independent terms.