Tribotronic Phototransistor for Enhanced Photodetection and Hybrid Energy Harvesting

Abstract

wileyonlinelibrary.comAs a three-way coupling effect among semiconductor, piezoelectricity, and photoexcitation, the piezo-phototronic effect was fi rst proposed in 2010 [ 6 ] and has demonstrated strain-enhanced light-emitting diodes, [ 7,8 ] photodetectors, [ 9,10 ] and photocells [ 11,12 ] by modulating the charge carrier transport, separation, or recombination through strain-induced piezoelectric polarization charges. Recently, the invention of a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has provided not only sustainable power sources [13][14][15][16][17] and self-powered devices, [18][19][20] but also proposed triboelectric-charge-controlled devices [21][22][23] and opened up a new research fi eld of tribotronics. [ 24,25 ] Since 2014, various tribotronic devices have been studied using the electrostatic potential created by triboelectrifi cation as a "gate" voltage to tune/control charge carrier transport in the semiconductor. [26][27][28][29] By further introducing optoelectronics, the tribotronic light-emitting diode has been developed as an adjustable electroluminescent device, [ 27 ] which has prompted the adjustable photoelectric conversion devices to be highly expected for enhancing the photoelectric conversion performance by triboelectrifi cation.Here in this work, we proposed a tribotronic phototransistor (TPT) by coupling a fi eld-effect phototransistor and a TENG, in which the contact-induced inner gate voltage by the mobile frictional layer is used for modulating the photoelectric characteristics of the TPT. Based on the TPT, a coupled energy-harvester (CEH) as an alternative design is fabricated by coupling the fi eld-effect phototransistor and a wind driven TENG for simultaneously scavenging solar and wind energies, in which the output voltage on the external resistance from the wind driven TENG is used as the gate voltage of the TPT for enhancing the solar energy conversion with the increase of the wind speed. With the adjustability and enhancement by triboelectrifi cation, the TPT has greatly expanded the functionality of tribotronics in photodetection and energy harvesting, and provided a potential solution for highly effi cient harvesting and utilizing the multitype energy. Principles and Characteristics Structure of the TPTThe structure of the TPT is composed of a back-gate silicon-oninsulator (SOI) fi eld-effect phototransistor and a mobile layer, as schematically illustrated in Figure 1 a. In the fabrication of Tribotronic Phototransistor for Enhanced Photodetection and Hybrid Energy HarvestingChi Zhang , Zhao Hua Zhang , Xiang Yang , Tao Zhou , Chang Bao Han , and Zhong Lin Wang * Tribotronics is a new fi eld developed by coupling triboelectricity and semiconductor, which can drive triboelectric-charge-controlled optoelectronic devices by further introducing optoelectronics. In this paper, a tribotronic phototransistor (TPT) is proposed by coupling a fi eld-effect phototransistor and a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), in which the contact-induced inner gate voltage by the mobile friction...

Human–Machine Interfacing Enabled by Triboelectric Nanogenerators and Tribotronics

“…Copyright 2012, John Wiley and Sons. Reproduced with permission . Copyright 2016, John Wiley and Sons.…”

“…As described before, the tribotronics is an emerging field that couples the triboelectricity with semiconductor, which uses the triboelectrification induced electrostatic potential as the gate voltage for carrier transport tuning in the transistor . The tribotronics has been successfully utilized to realize many functions, such as the FET, logic circuits, diode, phototransistor, and memory . Actually, the framework of tribotronics has been proposed for only a very short period and is quite a new and emerging field.…”

“…The TENG, based on the coupling of contact electrification and electrostatic induction, was invented by Wang and co‐workers . Meanwhile, tribotronics is a new field by coupling triboelectricity and semiconductor, which was first proposed in 2014 and is also a new application of TENG as a control source . During the last six years, TENG and tribotronics have proven to be a novel and effective method for mechanical‐to‐electrical signal conversion, especially for self‐powered mechanosensing, which has been successfully deployed to many HMI applications.…”

Tribotronic Enhanced Photoresponsivity of a MoS2 Phototransistor

“…[ 30,31 ] In 2014, an interesting new fi eld of tribotronics was introduced, which uses electrostatic potential created by TENG as a "gate" voltage to control charge carrier transport in the semiconductor. [ 32 ] By now, several tribotronic devices have been experimentally demonstrated including logic circuits, [ 33 ] organic LED, [ 34 ] memory, [ 35 ] and phototransistors, [ 36 ] especially smart tactile switch based on MoS 2 tribotronic transistor. [ 37 ] Here in this work, we developed a novel MoS 2 tribotronic phototransistor by coupling of a MoS 2 phototransistor and a sliding mode TENG.…”

Theoretical Study of Sliding‐Electrification‐Gated Tribotronic Transistors and Logic Device

“…[15][16][17][18][19][20][21] A new research field of tribotronics was then opened up in 2014, [22,23] using the electrostatic potential created by TENG as a "gate" voltage to tune/control chargecarrier transport in semiconductors. Tribotronics has established a direct interactive mechanism between the external environment and electronics, and has been demonstrated for potential applications in micro/nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), [24] tactile sensors, [25][26][27][28] logic circuits, [29,30] organic memory devices, [31] optoelectronics, [32][33][34][35] and active modulation. [36,37] Despite these published reports, by now the theoretical studies on tribotronic transistor and logic devices are very limited.…”