2010/01/15 by Youfan Hu, Yanling Chang, Fei Peng +2 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Engineering · #ZnO doping and properties #Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials #Gas Sensing Nanomaterials and Sensors
paper · doi:10.1021/nn901805g
openalex publication_date 2010/01/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
The localized coupling between piezoelectric and photoexcitation effects of a ZnO micro/nanowire device has been studied for the first time with the goal of designing and controlling the electrical transport characteristics of the device. The piezoelectric effect tends to raise the height of the local Schottky barrier (SB) at the metal-ZnO contact, while photoexcitation using a light that has energy higher than the band gap of ZnO lowers the SB height. By tuning the relative contributions of the effects from piezoelectricity via strain and photoexcitation via light intensity, the local contact can be tuned step-by-step and/or transformed from Schottky to Ohmic or from Ohmic to Schottky. This study describes a new principle for controlling the coupling among mechanical, photonic, and electrical properties of ZnO nanowires, which could be potentially useful for fabricating piezo-phototronic devices.