Band Bending and Ratcheting Explain Triboelectricity in a Flexoelectric Contact Diode.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35521939.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c00107.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Triboelectricity was recognized millennia ago, but the fundamental mechanism of charge transfer is still not understood. We have recently proposed a model where flexoelectric band bending due to local asperity contacts drives triboelectric charge transfer in non-metals. While this ab initio model is consistent with a wide range of observed phenomena, to date there have been no quantitative analyses of the proposed band bending. In this work we use a Pt<sub>0.8</sub>Ir<sub>0.2</sub> conductive atomic force microscope probe to simultaneously deform a Nb-doped SrTiO<sub>3</sub> sample and collect current-bias data. The current that one expects based upon an analysis including the relevant flexoelectric band bending for a deformed semiconductor quantitively agrees with the experiments. The analysis indicates a general ratcheting mechanism for triboelectric transfer and strong experimental evidence that flexoelectric band bending is of fundamental importance for triboelectric contacts.