High-efficiency micro-energy generation based on free-carrier-modulated ZnO:N piezoelectric thin films

Journal Article · Mon May 26 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4880935· OSTI ID:22300121

Lee, Eunju; Park, Jaedon; Yim, Munhyuk; Jeong, Sangbeom; Yoon, Giwan ^[1]

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1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701 (Korea, Republic of)

The free-carrier-modulated ZnO:N thin film-based flexible nanogenerators (NZTF-FNGs) are proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The suggested flexible nanogenerators (FNGs) are fabricated using N-doped ZnO thin films (NZTFs) as their piezoelectric active elements, which are deposited by a radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique with an N{sub 2}O reactive gas as an in situ dopant source. Considerable numbers of N atoms are uniformly incorporated into NZTFs overall during their growth, which would enable them to significantly compensate the unintentional background free electron carriers both in the bulk and at the surface of ZnO thin films (ZTFs). This N-doping approach is found to remarkably enhance the performance of NZTF-FNGs, which shows output voltages that are almost two orders of magnitude higher than those of the conventionally grown ZnO thin film-based FNGs. This is believed to be a result of both substantial screening effect suppression in the ZTF bulk and more reliable Schottky barrier formation at the ZTF interfaces, which is all mainly caused by the N-compensatory doping process. Furthermore, the NZTF-FNGs fabricated are verified via charging tests to be suitable for micro-energy harvesting devices.

• OSTI ID: 22300121
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 21; Other Information: (c) 2014 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ATOMS
CARRIERS
CRYSTAL GROWTH
DIFFUSION BARRIERS
DOPED MATERIALS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC GENERATORS
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
INTERFACES
MAGNETRONS
NITROGEN ADDITIONS
NITROUS OXIDE
PIEZOELECTRICITY
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
SCREENING
SPUTTERING
SURFACES
THIN FILMS
ZINC OXIDES