Growth of ultralong ZnO microwire and its application in isolatable and flexible piezoelectric strain sensor

• Published in: Physica status solidi. A, Applications and materials science Vol. 207; no. 2; pp. 488 - 492
• Main Authors: Sun, Kaitong, Zhang, Heqiu, Hu, Lizhong, Yu, Dongqi, Qiao, Shuangshuang, Sun, Jingchang, Bian, Jiming, Chen, Xi, Zhang, Lingxuan, Fu, Qiang, Zhao, Ziwen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin WILEY-VCH Verlag 01-02-2010; WILEY‐VCH Verlag; Wiley-VCH
• Subjects: 77.22.Jp; 77.65.−j; 77.84.Bw; 81.15.Gh; 85.50.−n; 87.85.fk; Exact sciences and technology; General equipment and techniques; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Physics; Sensors (chemical, optical, electrical, movement, gas, etc.); remote sensing; Deformation band; CVD; Hexagonal lattices; Schottky barriers; Zinc oxide; Barrier height; IV characteristic; Gauge factor; Strain sensors; Microwire
• ISSN: 1862-6300; 1862-6319
• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.200925468

Ultralong ZnO piezoelectric‐fine‐wires (PFWs) with a perfect hexagonal structure have been prepared by an upstream growing chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Furthermore, isolatable and flexible piezoelectric strain sensors based on individual ZnO PFWs have been fabricated by a simple and reliable technique. The whole device was fully packaged by epoxy polymeric resin (EPR). The I–V characteristic of the isolatable sensor is highly sensitive to the strain applied on it, which was well interpreted in terms of variation in Schottky barrier height (SBH) caused by strain induced band structure change and piezoelectric effect. The sensor exhibited excellent stability and fine reversibility, and a remarkably high gauge factor up to 1010 had been achieved. It is expected that the isolatable and flexible piezoelectric strain sensor demonstrated here will have applications in detection of external mechanical forces, as well as electromechanical switch with a high ON/OFF ratio.