To study the material deterioration at and around thesupport contacts during processing of silicon wafers, we usedRockwell indentation at elevated temperatures as a model.Cz-silicon was subjected for 30 s to a load of 1.5 N, attemperatures between 70 °C and 660 °C. The resulting morphology was checked by Scanning Electron Microscopy. Micro Raman Spectroscopy was used to monitor residual stress and theoccurrence of silicon polymorphs. We found strong compressivestress inside the indented area, with a dramatic drop and reversalto tensile stress at its boundary. The morphology shows a top hatprofile, covered with a mesh of vein-like structures. Crystallinephases such as Si-III, Si-IV, Si-XII, and amorphous silicon areobserved. Outside the spot, the situation depends strongly on theindentation temperature. Up to 400 °C the material appearspractically unstressed, with a high density of relaxation cracks.At 500 °C and 600 °C a transition is found from strong tensile stress at the boundary to another region of compressive stress extending over more than 40 μm, associated with asignificantly lower crack density. At still higher temperature(660 °C) the crack density tends to zero, and comparably weakstress seams to oscillate between compressive and tensile.