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Improved piezoresistive properties of ZnO/SiC nanowire heterojunctions with an optimized piezoelectric nanolayer

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Abstract

The vital issue for semiconductor pressure sensors is how to improve the sensitivity of their piezoresistive behavior. In this work, aiming to substantially promote the sensitivity, ZnO/SiC nanowire heterojunctions with various ZnO piezoelectric shell thicknesses were constructed by adjusting the depositing times of atomic layer deposition (ALD). It was found that the thicknesses of coupled ZnO nanolayers played a profound effect on the response of the heterojunctions to the change of stresses, representing the tailored piezoresistive behaviors. Accordingly, the piezoresistive coefficient was optimized to ~ 9.47 × 10–11 Pa−1 with an enhanced ΔR/R0 value of ~ 0.88, once the ZnO nanolayer thickness is fixed at ~ 20 nm, superior to most of pressures sensors based on SiC nanomaterials. This work may provide a novel strategy for exploring advanced SiC-based pressure sensors by coupling with suitable thickness of the piezoelectric nanolayer to improve piezoresistive behaviors.

Graphical abstract

The tailored piezoresistive performance of ZnO/SiC nanowire heterojunctions with a adjusted shell thicknesses of ZnO piezoelectric nanolayers was reported, which had an enhanced piezoresistive coefficient of 9.47 × 10–11 Pa−1 and a ΔR/R0 of 0.88.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Grant Nos. 51702175 and 51702174), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant No. Y21E020008) and the Natural Science Foundation of the Ningbo Municipal Government (Grant No. 2019A610049).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Materials, Ningbo University of Technology, Ningbo City, 315211, People’s Republic of China

    Lin Wang, Jie Wu, Minghui Shang, Fengmei Gao, Xiaoxiao Li, Yapeng Zheng, Dongdong Zhang, Weiyou Yang & Shanliang Chen

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  1. Lin Wang
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  2. Jie Wu
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  3. Minghui Shang
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Contributions

LW contributed to investigation, writing—original draft, methodology. JW helped in writing—review and editing and methodology. MS, FG, and XL helped in writing—review and editing and data curation. YZ and DZ wrote the review and edited. WY helped in conceptualization, supervision, writing—review and editing. SC contributed to conceptualization, project administration, funding acquisition, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Shanliang Chen.

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Wang, L., Wu, J., Shang, M. et al. Improved piezoresistive properties of ZnO/SiC nanowire heterojunctions with an optimized piezoelectric nanolayer. J Mater Sci 56, 17146–17155 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-06411-1

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