Plastic deformation of a glass-ceramic containing bismuth

Microindentation method was used to investigate plastic deformation of a bismuth glass-ceramic Bi-Pb-SrCu-O containing 60% of the amorphous and 40% of the crystalline 2201 phase. Plastic deformation was also studied for crystalline Bi-Pb-Sr-Ca-Cu-O ceramic containing 80% of the crystalline 2201 phase and 20% of the crystalline 2212 phase. Plastic deformation of the original glass-ceramic was limited by the amorphous phase and was of localized athermal type in the temperature range T < 170 °C. Plastic deformation of the crystalline ceramic was of thermally activated type and due to the 2201 and 2212 crystalline phases