High-precision strategy for piezoelectric characterization of nano/microwire

Investigating piezoelectricity of nano/microwire is important for their applications in nanogenerator, actuator, sensor and many more. Up to now, accurately probing the piezoelectric constant of nano/microwire along its axial direction has remained a challenge. Here, we propose a strategy that can high-precisely characterize the piezoelectric constant of nano/microwire along its axial direction through constructing a lateral structure with short connection of two ends of nano/microwire as one electrode and probe tip as another electrode, making the nano/microwire not buckle and its length unchanged during measurements. Theoretical analysis and simulations show that this strategy has ultra-high precision, in which the error can be as low as 2% (aspect ratio ∼100), 0.3% (∼500) and less than 0.2% (∼1000). Using this strategy, the measured piezoelectric constant d33 of ZnO microwires is 12.31 ± 0.57 pm/V, highly consistent with widely accepted values in ZnO bulks and films, further verifying the correctness and accuracy of this strategy. This simple, universal and high-precision strategy contributes to the piezoelectric characterization of nano/microwires and their applications in energy harvesting, human-machine interfacing, active electronics/optoelectronics and many more.