Ultrahigh sensitive piezotronic strain sensors based on a ZnSnO3 nanowire/microwire.

Wu, Jyh Ming; Chen, Cheng-Ying; Zhang, Yan; Chen, Kuan-Hsueh; Yang, Ya; Hu, Youfan; He, Jr-Hau; Wang, Zhong Lin · ACS Nano · 2012

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We demonstrated a flexible strain sensor based on ZnSnO(3) nanowires/microwires for the first time. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy indicates that the ZnSnO(3) belongs to a rhombohedral structure with an R3c space group and is grown along the [001] axis. On the basis of our experimental observation and theoretical calculation, the characteristic I-V curves of ZnSnO(3) revealed that our strain sensors had ultrahigh sensitivity, which is attributed to the piezopotential-modulated change in Schottky barrier height (SBH), that is, the piezotronic effect. The on/off ratio of our device is ∼587, and a gauge factor of 3740 has been demonstrated, which is 19 times higher than that of Si and three times higher than those of carbon nanotubes and ZnO nanowires.