TITLE:
Simulation of Graphene Piezoresistivity Based on Density Functional Calculations
AUTHORS:
Mohammed Gamil, Koichi Nakamura, Ahmed M. R. Fath El-Bab, Osamu Tabata, Ahmed Abd El-Moneim
KEYWORDS:
Graphene Ribbon; Piezoresitivity; First-Principles Calculation; Gauge Factor
JOURNAL NAME:
Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Material Science,
Vol.3 No.4,
October
7,
2013
ABSTRACT: The piezoresistive effect in graphene ribbon has been simulated
based on the first-principles electronic-state calculation for the development
of novel piezoresistive materials with special performances such as high
flexibility and low fabrication cost. We modified theoretical approach for
piezoresistivity simulation from our original method for semiconductor systems
to improved procedure applicable to conductor systems. The variations of
carrier conductivity due to strain along with the graphene ribbon models (armchair
model and zigzag model) have been calculated using band carrier densities and their corresponding effective masses derived from the
one-dimensional electronic band diagram. We found that the armchair-type graphene nano-ribbon
models have low conductivity with heavy effective mass. This is a totally
different conductivity from two-dimensional graphene sheet. The variation of
band energy diagrams of the zigzag-type graphene nano-ribbon models
due to strain is much more sensitive than that of the armchair models. As a
result, the longitudinal and transverse gauge factors are high in our
calculation, and in particular, the zigzag-type graphene ribbon has an enormous
potential material with high piezoresistivity. So, it will be one of the most
important candidates that can be used as a high-performance piezoresistive material
for fabricating a new high sensitive strain gauge sensor.