Premium
An Elastic Interfacial Transistor Enabled by Superhydrophobicity
Author(s) -
Tian Tian,
Sharma Chander Shekhar,
Ahuja Navanshu,
Varga Matija,
Selvakumar Raja,
Lee YenTing,
Chiu YuCheng,
Shih ChihJen
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201804006
Subject(s) - materials science , nanowire , transistor , substrate (aquarium) , semiconductor , nanotechnology , field effect transistor , wetting , optoelectronics , stress (linguistics) , piezoresistive effect , modulus , composite material , electrical engineering , linguistics , oceanography , philosophy , voltage , geology , engineering
Enabling mechanical responsiveness in field‐effect transistors (FETs) offers new technological opportunity beyond the reach of existing platforms. Here a new force‐sensing concept is proposed by controlling the wettability of a semiconductor surface, referring to the interfacial field‐effect transistors (IFETs). An IFET made by superhydrophobic semiconductor nanowires (NWs) sandwiched between a layer of 2D electron gas (2DEG) and a conductive Cassie–Baxter (CB) sessile droplet is designed. Following the hydrostatic deformation of the CB droplet upon mechanical stress, an extremely small elastic modulus of 820 pascals vertical to the substrate plane, or ≈100 times softer than Ecoflex rubbers, enabling an excellent stress detection limit down to <10 pascals and a stress sensitivity of 36 kPa −1 is proposed. The IFET exhibits an on/off current ratio exceeding 3 × 10 4 , as the carrier density profile at the NW/2DEG interface is modulated by a partially penetrated electrostatic field. This study demonstrates a versatile platform that bridges multiple macroscopic interfacial phenomena with nanoelectronic responses.