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The use of ceramic materials is often restricted by a transition from ductile behavior to brittle fracture with decreasing temperature. For example, strontium titanate ( SrTiO3) is known to be extremely fragile and brittle below 1300 K. It is therefore surprising to find that SrTiO3 single crystals can be deformed in compression below 1050 K again. Extensive plastic deformation up to 7% strain at low yield stresses of the order of only 120 MPa is possible at room temperature. Low temperature plasticity is carried by the same [110] [110] dislocations as the high temperature deformation along the [001] axis. From this we conclude that these dislocations must exist in two different core configurations.

Oxides such as SrTiO3 are expected to fail via brittle fracture at low temperatures. Surprisingly, in the present study, SrTiO3 single crystals could be plastically deformed in compression in two temperature ranges: from 78 K to ∼1050 K and from 1500 K to 1800 K. SrTiO3 was brittle at temperatures between these two ranges (∼1050–1500 K). This phenomenon of a ductile–brittle–ductile transition, together with microstructural investigations, suggests that the role of dislocations in the plasticity of ceramics must be reconsidered.

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