Physically Responsive Field-Effect Transistors with Giant Electromechanical Coupling Induced by Nanocomposite Gate Dielectrics

Physically responsive field-effect transistors (physi-FETs) that are sensitive to physical stimuli have been studied for decades. The important issue for separating the responses of sensing materials from interference by other subcomponents in a FET transducer under global physical stimuli has not been completely resolved. In addition, challenges remain with regard to the design and employment of smart materials for flexible physi-FETs with a large electro-physical coupling effect. In this article, we propose the direct integration of nanocomposite (NC) gate dielectrics of barium titanate (BT) nanoparticles (NPs) and highly crystalline poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) into flexible organic FETs to achieve a large electro-physical coupling effect. Additionally, a new alternating current biasing method is proposed for precise extraction and quantification of tiny variations in the remnant polarization of NCs caused by mechanical stimuli. An investigation of physi-FETs under static mechanical stimuli revealed the first ever reported giant, positive piezoelectric coefficients of d(33) up to 960 pC/N in the NCs. The large coefficients are presumably due to the significant contributions of the intrinsic positive piezoelectricity of the BT NPs and P(VDF-TrFE) crystallites.