Ambient energy harvesting using piezoelectric nanomaterials is today considered as a promising way to supply microelectronic devices. Since the first demonstration of electrical energy generation from piezoelectric semiconductor nanowires in 2006, the piezoelectric response of 1D-nanostructures and the development of nanowire-based piezogenerators have become a hot topic in nanoscience. After several years of intense research on ZnO nanowires, III-nitride nanomaterials have started to be explored thanks to their high piezoelectric coefficients and their strong piezogeneration response. This review describes the present status of the field of piezoelectric energy generation with nitride nanowires. After presenting the main motivation and a general overview of the domain, a short description of the main properties of III-nitride nanomaterials is given. Then we review the piezoelectric responses of III-N nanowires and the specificities of the piezogeneration mechanism in these nanostructures. Finally, the design and performance of the macroscopic piezogenerators based on nitride nanowire arrays are described, showing the promise of III-nitride nanowires for ultra-compact and efficient piezoelectric generators.
We demonstrate the first piezo-generator integrating a vertical array of GaN nanowires (NWs). We perform a systematic multi-scale analysis, going from single wire properties to macroscopic device fabrication and characterization, which allows us to establish for GaN NWs the relationship between the material properties and the piezo-generation, and to propose an efficient piezo-generator design. The piezo-conversion of individual MBE-grown p-doped GaN NWs in a dense array is assessed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) equipped with a Resiscope module yielding an average output voltage of 228 ± 120 mV and a maximum value of 350 mV generated per NW. In the case of p-doped GaN NWs, the piezo-generation is achieved when a positive piezo-potential is created inside the nanostructures, i.e. when the NWs are submitted to compressive deformation. The understanding of the piezo-generation mechanism in our GaN NWs, gained from AFM analyses, is applied to design a piezo-generator operated under compressive strain. The device consists of NW arrays of several square millimeters in size embedded into spin-on glass with a Schottky contact for rectification and collection of piezo-generated carriers. The generator delivers a maximum power density of ∼12.7 mW cm(-3). This value sets the new state of the art for piezo-generators based on GaN NWs and more generally on nitride NWs, and offers promising prospects for the use of GaN NWs as high-efficiency ultra-compact energy harvesters.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.