Nonlinear effect of carrier drift on the performance of an n-type ZnO nanowire nanogenerator by coupling piezoelectric effect and semiconduction

Abstract

In piezoelectric semiconductors, electric fields drive carriers into motion/redistribution, and in turn the carrier motion/redistribution has an opposite effect on the electric field itself. Thus, carrier drift in a piezoelectric semiconducting structure is essentially nonlinear unless the induced fluctuation of carrier concentration is very small. In this paper, the nonlinear governing equation of carrier concentration was established by coupling both piezoelectric effect and semiconduction. A nonlinear carrier-drift effect on the performance of a ZnO nanogenerator was investigated in detail and it was elucidated that carrier motion/redistribution occurs in the ZnO nanowire (ZNW) cross section while there is no carrier motion in the axial direction. At the same time, we noted that the amplitude of boundary electric charge grows with increasing deformation, but the peaks of boundary electric charge do not appear at the cross-section endpoints. Thus, in order to effectively improve the performance of the ZNW nanogenerator, the effect of electrode configuration on the piezoelectric potential difference and output power was analyzed in detail. The electrode size for the optimal performance of a ZnO nanowire generator was proposed. This analysis that couples electromechanical fields and carrier concentration as a whole has some referential significance to piezotronics.

Magnetically Induced Carrier Distribution in a Composite Rod of Piezoelectric Semiconductors and Piezomagnetics

“…The above equations are applicable to each component phase of the composite structure in Figure 1 as special cases. They have been used to study thickness vibration of plates [ 25 , 26 ], wave propagation [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ], fields near cracks [ 33 , 34 , 35 ], extension of rods [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ], bending of beams [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ], and fields near PN junctions [ 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ] in piezoelectric semiconductors.…”

Typical transient effects in a piezoelectric semiconductor nanofiber under a suddenly applied axial time-dependent force

“…This gives rise to the appearance of a novel device application known as "piezotronics", including nanogenerators [2][3][4] , acoustic charge transport devices [5] , field effect transistors [6][7][8][9] , as well as chemical sensors [10] . Recently, the static behavior of ZnO PS structures with high performance was reported [11][12][13][14][15] . However, in spite of significant developments in these applications, the field of piezotronics still presents various challenges as a result of coupling among the multiple physical properties and mathematical problems, especially in time-dependent applications [16] .…”

Size effect in piezoelectric semiconductor nanostructures

“…For instance, Gao and Wang (2009) analyzed a laterally bent semiconductive ZnO nanowire and observed that its piezoelectric potential can be used as a driving force to produce electric power. Fan et al (2017), Liang et al (2018), and Zhang et al (2018) revisited this problem based on the phenomenological theory of PSC. Tian et al (2020) introduced interface effect into PSC composites to provide possible extra tuning opportunities.…”