The piezo-phototronic effect is about the enhanced separation, transport, and recombination of the photogenerated carriers using the piezoelectric polarization charges present in piezoelectric-semiconductor materials. Here, it is presented that the piezo-phototronic effect can be effectively applied to improve the relative conversion efficiency of a flexible solar cell based on n-ZnO/p-SnS core...

The structural properties of r.f. planar magnetron sputtered ZnO films are studied as a function of deposition parameters: substrate type, substrate temperature, sputter gas pressure, growth rate and sputtering power. These films are applied as piezoelectric transducers in micromechanical sensors and actuators. The electric properties, and consequently the piezoelectric behaviour, depend strong...

We have investigated exciton states in wurtzite GaN/AlN and ZnO quantum dots. A strong piezoelectric field in GaN/AlN quantum dots is found to tilt conduction and valence bands, thus pushing the electron to the top and the hole to the bottom of the GaN/AlN quantum dot. As a result, the exciton ground state energy in GaN/AlN quantum dots with heights larger than 3 nm exhibits a red shift with re...

Wurtzite ZnO can be substituted with up to 30% MgO to form a metastable Zn1−xMgxO alloy while still retaining the wurtzite structure. Because this alloy has a larger band gap than pure ZnO, Zn1−xMgxO/ZnO quantum wells and superlattices are of interest as candidates for applications in optoelectronic and electronic devices. Here, we report the results of an ab initio study of the spontaneous pol...

Strain-gated piezotronic transistors have been fabricated using vertically aligned ZnO nanowires (NWs), which were grown on GaN/sapphire substrates using a vapor-liquid-solid process. The gate electrode of the transistor is replaced by the internal crystal potential generated by strain, and the control over the transported current is at the interface between the nanowire and the top or bottom e...

ZnO nanowire inorganic/organic hybrid ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have attracted considerable attention as they not only combine the high flexibility of polymers with the structural and chemical stability of inorganic nanostructures but also have a higher light extraction efficiency than thin film structures. However, up to date, the external quantum efficiency of UV LED based...

In this paper, a Micro – Electrical Mechanical System (MEMS) energy harvester is developed, using the phenomenon of Piezoelectricity. Zinc Oxide (ZnO) was chosen as the piezoelectric material. A multi – d31 mode cantilever design was used with varying dimensions of cantilever, to form an array. The individual cantilevers can be either connected in series or parallel to achieve different output ...

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) have been researched as the building blocks for various nanosensors and devices, such as strain sensors, [ 1,2 ] photodetectors, [ 3 ] biosensors, [ 4 ] and gas sensors. [ 5 ] In recent years, wurtzite semiconductor NWs, such as ZnO, have been extensively investigated due to their piezoelectric properties. [ 6 ] With metal-semiconductor Schottky junctions, the elec...

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is used for various purposes because of its special physico-chemical properties, including large band gap, high binding energy exciton, nontoxicity, chemical and thermal stability, piezoelectric constants, wurtzite crystal structure with widespread applications in electronics, optoelectronics, biochemical sensing, biomedical, energy-saving systems. This review mainly aimed to p...

Superlattice-structured ZnO nanohelix is a structure that is made of a coiling nanobelt, which is composed of ZnO nanostripes oriented alternatively in two different orientations (Science 2005, 309, 1700). The nanostripes run almost in parallel to the nanobelt direction but at an offset angle of approximately 5 degrees . We have measured the transport properties of a nanohelix and found its abn...