Current-Accelerated Phase Cycling with Metallic and Semiconducting Switching in Copper Nanobelts at Room Temperature.

Here, a current-accelerated phase cycling by an current-induced oxidation process was demonstrated to reversibly switch the local metallic Cu and semiconducting CuO phases of patterned polycrystalline copper nanobelts. Once the Cu nanobelts were applied by a direct-current bias of ∼0.5 to 1 V in air with opposite polarities, the resistance between several hundred ohms and more than MΩ can be manipulated.