Piezoelectric monolayers as nonlinear energy harvesters

Miquel López-Suárez, Miguel Pruneda, Gabriel Abadal, Riccardo Rurali

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We study the dynamics of h-BN monolayers by first performing ab-initio calculations of the deformation potential energy and then solving numerically a Langevine-type equation to explore their use in nonlinear vibration energy harvesting devices. An applied compressive strain is used to drive the system into a nonlinear bistable regime, where quasi-harmonic vibrations are combined with low-frequency swings between the minima of a double-well potential. Due to its intrinsic piezoelectric response, the nonlinear mechanical harvester naturally provides an electrical power that is readily available or can be stored by simply contacting the monolayer at its ends. Engineering the induced nonlinearity, a 20 nm device is predicted to harvest an electrical power of up to 0.18 pW for a noisy vibration of 5 pN. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Original languageEnglish
Article number175401
JournalNanotechnology
Volume25
Issue number17
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 May 2014

Keywords

  • DFT
  • boron nitride
  • energy harvesting
  • nonlinear
  • piezoelectric

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