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Hardness of cubic silicon nitride

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Abstract

We report that polycrystalline cubic-Si3N4 with a spinel structure and low oxygen concentration (<0.5 wt%) shows Vickers hardness of 43 GPa when measured with the indentation load of 10 mN. The hardness decreases with the increase of the indentation load, which can be ascribed to the presence of weak grain boundaries. The high hardness can be well explained by its large shear modulus as predicted by first-principles calculations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, 606-8501, Sakyo, Kyoto, Japan

    I. Tanakaa, K. Tatsumi & H. Adachi

  2. Engineering Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 113-8656, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan

    F. Oba

  3. Advanced Materials Laboratory, National Institute for Materials Science, 305-0044, Namiki, Tsukuba, Japan

    T. Sekine

  4. Institute for Study of the Earth’s Interior, Okayama University, 682-0193, Misasa, Tottori, Japan

    E. Ito & A. Kubo

  5. Department of Advanced Materials Science, The University of Tokyo, 113-8656, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan

    T. Yamamoto

Authors
  1. I. Tanakaa
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  2. F. Oba
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  3. T. Sekine
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  4. E. Ito
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  5. A. Kubo
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  6. K. Tatsumi
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  7. H. Adachi
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  8. T. Yamamoto
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Correspondence to I. Tanakaa.

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Tanakaa, I., Oba, F., Sekine, T. et al. Hardness of cubic silicon nitride. Journal of Materials Research 17, 731–733 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2002.0105

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2002.0105

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