title: The clash of mechanical and electrical size-effects in ZnO nanowires and a double power law approach to elastic strain engineering of piezoelectric and piezotronic devices.
abstract: The piezoelectric performance of ultra-strength ZnO nanowires (NWs) depends on the subtle interplay between electrical and mechanical size-effects. "Size-dependent" modeling of compressed NWs illustrates why experimentally observed mechanical stiffening can indeed collide with electrical size-effects when the size shrinks, thereby lowering the actual piezoelectric function from bulk estimates. "Smaller" is not necessarily "better" in nanotechnology.
authors.affiliation: University of L'Aquila, International Research Center for Mathematics & Mechanics of Complex System (MEMOCS), Via S. Pasquale, 04012, Cisterna di Latina, (LT), Italy; ENEA, C.R. Casaccia, Via Anguillarese 301, Santa Maria di Galeria, 00123, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rinaldi
authors.forename: Rodolfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Araneo
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Celozzi
authors.forename: Marialilia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pea
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Notargiacomo
keywords: elastic strain engineering; energy harvesting; fractals; multifunctional materials; piezoelectrics; piezotronics; power law scaling; structure-property relations; wurtzite materials