Zhao Luming, Li Hu, Meng Jianping, Zhang Yan, Feng Hongqin, Wu Yuxiang, Li Zhou
CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Beijing Key Laboratory of Micro-nano Energy and Sensor, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China; Beijing Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing 100850, China; School of Nanoscience and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Beijing Key Laboratory of Micro-nano Energy and Sensor, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China.
Sci Bull (Beijing). 2021 Jul 30;66(14):1409-1418. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.03.013. Epub 2021 Mar 17.
Schottky-contacted sensors have been demonstrated to show high sensitivity and fast response time in various sensing systems. In order to improve their sensing performance, the Schottky barriers height (SBH) at the interface of semiconductor and metal electrode should be adjusted to appropriate range to avoid low output or low sensitivity, which was induced by excessively high or low SBH, respectively. In this work, a simple and effective SBH tuning method by triboelectric generator (TENG) is proposed, the SBH can be effectively lowered by voltage pulses generated by TENG and gradually recover over time after withdrawing the TENG. Through combining the TENG treatment with piezotronic effect, a synergistic effect on lowering SBH was achieved. The change of SBH is increased by 3.8 to 12.8 times, compared with dependent TENG treatment and piezotronic effect, respectively. Furthermore, the recovery time of the TENG-lowered SBH can be greatly shortened from 1.5 h to 40 s by piezotronic effect. This work demonstrated a flexible and feasible SBH tuning method, which can be used to effectively improve the sensitivity of Schottky-contact sensor and sensing system. Our study also shows great potential in broadening the application scenarios of Schottky-contacted electronic devices.
