The clash of mechanical and electrical size-effects in ZnO nanowires and a double power law approach to elastic strain engineering of piezoelectric and piezotronic devices.

Rinaldi, Antonio; Araneo, Rodolfo; Celozzi, Salvatore; Pea, Marialilia; Notargiacomo, Andrea · Adv Mater · 2014

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The piezoelectric performance of ultra-strength ZnO nanowires (NWs) depends on the subtle interplay between electrical and mechanical size-effects. "Size-dependent" modeling of compressed NWs illustrates why experimentally observed mechanical stiffening can indeed collide with electrical size-effects when the size shrinks, thereby lowering the actual piezoelectric function from bulk estimates. "Smaller" is not necessarily "better" in nanotechnology.