Anisotropic hardness and fracture toughness of highly aligned YBa2Cu3O7−δ

The hardness and fracture toughness of aligned YBa2Cu3O7−δ obtained by melt processing was found to be highly anisotropic. Indentation measurements show that the (001), (100), and (010) planes are the preferred fracture planes in this material and that the critical stress intensity factor for propagating a crack on the (001) basal plane is the lowest, i.e., Kc001<Kc100 or Kc010. Indentation crack length measurements on the (001) basal plane with the impression diagonals oriented parallel to the [100] and the [010] directions, indicate that the fracture toughness of these planes is K100/010air∼0.7 MPa m1/2. The hardness in this orientation was found to be 6.7 GPa. Measurements on a plane perpendicular to the basal plane resulted in a lower hardness of ∼3.8 GPa. This reduction in hardness is influenced by the extensive preferential cleavage of the (001) basal plane boundaries. The extremely low values of the fracture toughness suggest that considerable toughening would have to be achieved in melt‐textured 1...