Temperature dependence of the piezotronic effect in ZnO nanowires.

A comprehensive investigation was carried out on n-type ZnO nanowires for studying the temperature dependence of the piezotronic effect from 77 to 300 K. In general, lowering the temperature results in a largely enhanced piezotronic effect. The experimental results show that the behaviors can be divided into three groups depending on the carrier doping level or conductivity of the ZnO nanowires. For nanowires with a low carrier density (<10(17)/cm(3) at 77 K), the pieozotronic effect is dominant at low temperature for dictating the transport properties of the nanowires; an opposite change of Schottky barrier heights at the two contacts as a function of temperature at a fixed strain was observed for the first time. At a moderate doping (between 10(17)/cm(3) and 10(18)/cm(3) at 77 K), the piezotronic effect is only dominant at one contact, because the screening effect of the carriers to the positive piezoelectric polarization charges at the other end (for n-type semiconductors). For nanowires with a high density of carriers (>10(18)/cm(3) at 77 K), the piezotronic effect almost vanishes. This study not only proves the proposed fundamental mechanism of piezotronic effect, but also provides guidance for fabricating piezotronic devices.