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Piezotronic Tunneling Junction Gated by Mechanical Stimuli
Author(s) -
Liu Shuhai,
Wang Longfei,
Feng Xiaolong,
Liu Jinmei,
Qin Yong,
Wang Zhong Lin
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201905436
Subject(s) - quantum tunnelling , materials science , piezoelectricity , semiconductor , optoelectronics , quantum , condensed matter physics , nanotechnology , physics , quantum mechanics , composite material
Tunneling junction is used in many devices such as high‐frequency oscillators, nonvolatile memories, and magnetic field sensors. In these devices, modulation on the barrier width and/or height is usually realized by electric field or magnetic field. Here, a new piezotronic tunneling junction (PTJ) principle, in which the quantum tunneling is controlled/tuned by externally applied mechanical stimuli, is proposed. In these metal/insulator/piezoelectric semiconductor PTJs, such as Pt/Al 2 O 3 / p ‐GaN, the height and the width of the tunneling barriers can be mechanically modulated via the piezotronic effect. The tunneling current characteristics of PTJs exhibit critical behavior as a function of external mechanical stimuli, which results in high sensitivity (≈5.59 mV MPa −1 ), giant switching (>10 5 ), and fast response (≈4.38 ms). Moreover, the mechanical controlling of tunneling transport in PTJs with various thickness of Al 2 O 3 is systematically investigated. The high performance observed with these metal/insulator/piezoelectric semiconductor PTJs suggest their great potential in electromechanical technology. This study not only demonstrates dynamic mechanical controlling of quantum tunneling, but also paves a way for adaptive interaction between quantum tunneling and mechanical stimuli, with potential applications in the field of ultrasensitive press sensor, human–machine interface, and artificial intelligence.