The role of dislocations in the plastic behavior of silicon nitride - a review

Intrinsic properties of silicon nitride are not well documented due to the lack of commercially available pure material or large single crystal. However, this is a crucial point nowadays since new elaboration processing routes allow to Obtain dense material using a fair amount of sintering aids, known to be responsible for the discrepancy of the mechanical properties at higher temperature. This paper intends to review characterizations of intragranular defects and their role during the plastic deformation Of Si3N4.