Abstract
Negative photoplastic effect (NPhE), i.e. the reversible influence of light on the flow stress and hardness in non-crystalline materials (mainly As–S binary chalcogenide glasses for thin-film samples), has been studied through the changes in nanoscale mechanical properties using the nanoindentation technique for various loading procedures. It has been shown that the opposite changes in local mechanical properties (Young's modulus and nanohardness) take place due to band-gap light illumination and that a pronounced non-linear (non-Hookean) mechanism of the formation of strain response is detected. This behaviour has been described in terms of conception which assumes that the heterogeneous (two-phase) structure of chalcogenide glasses undergoes modification with light. A comparative short overview of nanoindentation study of the NPhE in thin films of chalcogenide glasses and azobenzene-containing polymer films is presented in this paper.
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