The usefulness of most high technology devices such as cell phones, computers, and sensors is limited by the storage capacity of batteries. In the future, these limitations will become more pronounced as the demand for wireless power outpaces battery development which is already nearly optimized. Thus, new power generation techniques are required for the next generation of wearable computers, w...

Piezoelectric optical scanner is developed for multi-coordinate control of optical laser beam. Such type of optomicro-mechanical systems can be used for accurate angular or linear deflection of optical elements in various optomechanical and optoelectronic systems. The operating principle of these devices is based on piezoelectric effect and on conversion of high-frequency multi-dimensional mech...

Piezoelectric composites are a class of functional materials consisting of piezoelectric active materials and non-piezoelectric passive polymers, mechanically attached together to form different connectivities. These composites have several advantages compared to conventional piezoelectric ceramics and polymers, including improved electromechanical properties, mechanical flexibility and the abi...

We report the piezoelectric properties of ZnO nanowires (NWs) obtained by using a nanoindenter with a conductive boron-doped diamond tip. The direct piezoelectric effect was measured by performing nanoindentations under load control, and the generated piezoelectric voltage was characterized as a function of the applied loads in the range 0.2-6 mN. The converse piezoelectric effect was measured ...

Piezoelectric nanocomposites represent a unique class of materials that synergize the advantageous features of polymers and piezoelectric nanostructures and have attracted extensive attention for the applications of energy harvesting and self-powered sensing recently. Currently, most of the piezoelectric nanocomposites were synthesized using piezoelectric nanostructures with relatively low piez...

Despite the significant potential of organic piezoelectric materials in the electro-mechanical or mechano-electrical applications that require light and flexible material properties, the intrinsically low piezoelectric performance as compared to traditional inorganic materials has limited their full utilization. In this study, we demonstrate that dimensional reduction of poly(vinylidene fluorid...

Wurtzite structures, such as ZnO, GaN, InN and CdS, are piezoelectric semiconductor materials. A piezopotential is formed in the crystal by the piezoelectric charges created by applying a stress. The inner-crystal piezopotential can effectively tune/control the carrier separations and transport processes at the vicinity of a p–n junction or metal–semiconductor contact, which is called the piezo...

Piezoelectric nanobeams having circular, rectangular and hexagonal cross-sections are synthesized and used in various Nano structures; however, piezoelectric nanobeams with hexagonal cross-sections have not been studied in detail. In particular, the physical mechanisms of the surface effect and the role of surface stress, surface elasticity and surface piezoelectricity have not been discussed t...