Abstract
Nanowires of ferroelectric potassium niobate were grown by filling nanoporous templates of both side opened anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) through radiofrequency vacuum sputtering for multisensor fabrication. The precise geometrical ordering of the AAO matrix led to well defined single axis oriented wire-shaped material inside the pores. The sensing abilities of the samples were studied and analyzed in terms of piezoelectric and pyroelectric response and the results were compared for different length of the nanopores (nanotubes)—1.3 µm, 6.3 µm and 10 µm. Based on scanning electronic microscopy, elemental and microstructural analyses, as well as electrical measurements at bending and heating, the overall sensing performance of the devices was estimated. It was found that the produced membrane type elements, consisting potassium niobate grown in AAO template exhibited excellent piezoelectric response due to the increased specific area as compared to non-structured films, and could be further enhanced with the nanowires length. The piezoelectric voltage increased linearly with 16 mV per micrometer of nanowire’s length. At the same time the pyroelectric voltage was found to be less sensitive to the nanowires length, changing its value at 400 nV/µm. This paper provides a simple and low-cost approach for nanostructuring ferroelectric oxides with multisensing application, and serves as a base for further optimization of template based nanostructured devices.
Highlights
Ferroelectric oxides are of great scientific interest as they are flexible in terms of properties such as tuning during deposition, technological compatibility with micro-/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) fabrication technology, and their applicability in energy harvesting or multisensor devices, due to their piezoelectric and pyroelectric response [1,2,3]
Laboratory-made nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates used in this work were produced following procedures described elsewhere [25], and had pores with an outer diameter of ~200 nm distributed over area of 0.9 cm2 (Figure 1)
Aligned nanowires are of great advantages in terms of piezoelectric sensor
Summary
Ferroelectric oxides are of great scientific interest as they are flexible in terms of properties such as tuning during deposition, technological compatibility with micro-/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) fabrication technology, and their applicability in energy harvesting or multisensor devices, due to their piezoelectric and pyroelectric response [1,2,3]. Ferroelectric nanowires could be incorporated into precise sensors, which have been found to exhibit better characteristics as compared to the bulk or thin film devices which are not nanostructured. There have been studies of ferroelectric oxides, such as potassium based oxides (sodium, niobium, lithium, tantalum, etc.) with potential applications in mechanical energy harvesting due to their favorable piezoelectric properties and durability at multiple activation. The most studied nanowires used for sensing applications are ZnO ones [11,12]
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