Abstract
A lateral piezopotential-gated field-effect transistor is realized by operation of scaning tunneling microscope (STM) tip onto an individual ZnO nanowires inside high-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM). The electric transport behavior of ZnO nanowires under bending by point contact of STM tip at the cross section of nanowire end shows that, the nanowire conductance decreases up to 2 orders of magnitude when a 2.63% bending strain is applied. Experimental results and their detailed analysis reveal that the regarded change in conductance is not due to Schottky barrier at the contact interface but originates from the carrier depletion caused by the lateral piezoelectric potential within the nanowire. The bending strain-gated transistor is one of the new type piezotronics devices. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.