A giant negative piezoresistance effect in 3C-SiC nanowires with B dopants

Silicon carbide (SiC) is recognized as a promising substitute for the currently used Si for exploring robust pressure sensors with desired high sensitivities and excellent abilities to serve under harsh work conditions. In the present work, we reported the giant piezoresistance effect of p-type 3C-SiC nanowires with B dopants, which were synthesized by catalyst-assisted pyrolysis of polysilazane. The transverse electromechanical properties of SiC nanowires were investigated at loading forces applied using a conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) tip. The resistances of the as-synthesized SiC nanowires exhibit an increase with the increase of compressed stresses at the same bias voltages, representing their negative piezoresistance behaviors. The measured negative piezoresistance coefficient π[10] of the nanowire fell in the range of −8.83 to −103.42 × 10−11 Pa−1 as the applied loading forces ranged from 51.7 to 181.0 nN. The giant gauge factor (GF) could be up to −620.5, which was enhanced by more than 10 times compared to the highest ever reported for SiC nanostructures.