Electrical self-healing of mechanically damaged zinc oxide nanobelts.

Zang, Jianfeng; Xu, Zhi-Hui; Webb, Richard A; Li, Xiaodong · Nano Lett · 2011

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

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.