Electrical self-healing of mechanically damaged zinc oxide nanobelts.
We report the observation of remarkable electrical self-healing in mechanically damaged ZnO nanobelts. Nanoindentation into intrinsically defect-free ZnO nanobelts induces deformation and crack damage, causing a dramatic electrical signal decrease. Two self-healing regimes in the nanoindented ZnO nanobelts are revealed. The physical mechanism for the observed phenomena is analyzed in terms of the nanoindentation-induced dislocations, the short-range atomic diffusion in nanostructures, and the local heating of the dislocation zone in the electrical measurement.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, 300 Main Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States.
Jianfeng
J
Zang
Zhi-Hui
ZH
Xu
Richard A
RA
Webb
Xiaodong
X
Li