Effects of flexoelectricity and surface elasticity on piezoelectric potential in a bent ZnO nanowire

Abstract

In this work, a rapid model is established to study the effects of flexoelectricity and surface elasticity on the piezoelectric potential of a bent ZnO nanowire. Based on the piezoelectric theory and core-surface model, the distribution of piezoelectric potential of the ZnO nanowire is investigated. The analytical solution shows that the flexoelectricity and surface elasticity both significantly influence the piezoelectric potential. However, the effect of flexoelectricity is longitudinal dependent, which vanishes on the top side of nanowire, but only left surface elasticity effect on the potential. Simulation results show that the maximum value of potential on the top side of nanowire is about ± 220.5mV, of which result is lower compared to other theoretical models, but it should be more reasonable.