Combining triboelectric nanogenerator with piezoelectric effect for optimizing Schottky barrier height modulation

Schottky-contacted sensors have been demonstrated to show high sensitivity and fast response time in various sensing systems. In order to improve their sensing performance, the Schottky barriers height (SBH) at the interface of semiconductor and metal electrode should be adjusted to appropriate range to avoid low output or low sensitivity, which was induced by excessively high or low SBH, respectively. In this work, a simple and effective SBH tuning method by triboelectric generator (TENG) is proposed, the SBH can be effectively lowered by voltage pulses generated by TENG and gradually recover over time after withdrawing the TENG. Through combining the TENG treatment with piezotronic effect, a synergistic effect on lowering SBH was achieved. The change of SBH is increased by 3.8 to 12.8 times, compared with dependent TENG treatment and piezotronic effect, respectively. Furthermore, the recovery time of the TENG-lowered SBH can be greatly shortened from 1.5 h to 40 s by piezotronic effect. This work demonstrated a flexible and feasible SBH tuning method, which can be used to effectively improve the sensitivity of Schottky-contact sensor and sensing system. Our study also shows great potential in broadening the application scenarios of Schottky-contacted electronic devices.