Piezotronic Effect in Polarity-Controlled GaN Nanowires

Piezoelectricity in wide bandgap semiconductor 2D crystal GaN nanosheets

Gallium nitride (GaN) exhibits various potential applications in optics and optoelectronics due to its outstanding physical characteristics, including a wide direct bandgap, strong deep-ultraviolet emission, and excellent electron transport properties. However, research on the piezoelectric and related properties of GaN nanosheets are scarce, as previous small-scale GaN investigations have mainly concentrated on nanowires and nanotubes. Here, we report a strategy for growing 2D GaN nanosheets using chemical vapor deposition on Ga/W liquid-phase substrates. Additionally, utilizing scanning probe techniques, it has been observed that 700 nm-thick GaN nanosheets demonstrate a piezoelectric constant of deff33 = 1.53 ± 0.21 pm V-1 and possess the capability to effectively modulate the Schottky barrier. The piezoelectric characteristics of 2D GaN are offering new options for innovative applications in various fields, including energy harvesting, electronics, sensing, and communications.

Organic-inorganic hybrid piezotronic bipolar junction transistor for pressure sensing

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoTs), wearable sensors are playing an increasingly important role in daily monitoring of personal health and wellness. The signal-to-noise-ratio has become the most critical performance factor to consider. To enhance it, on the one hand, good sensing materials/devices have been employed; on the other hand, signal amplification and noise reduction circuits have been used. However, most of these devices and circuits work in an active sampling mode, requiring frequent data acquisition and hence, entailing high-power consumption. In this scenario, a flexible and wearable event-triggered sensor with embedded signal amplification without an external power supply is of great interest. Here, we report a flexible two-terminal piezotronic n-p-n bipolar junction transistor (PBJT) that acts as an autonomous and highly sensitive, current- and/or voltage-mediated pressure sensor. The PBJT is formed by two back-to-back piezotronic diodes which are defined as emitter-base and collector-base diodes. Upon force exertion on the emitter side, as a result of the piezoelectric effect, the emitter-base diode is forward biased while the collector-base diode is reverse biased. Due to the inherent BJT amplification effect, the PBJT achieves record-high sensitivities of 139.7 kPa-1 (current-based) and 88.66 kPa-1 (voltage-based) in sensing mode. The PBJT also has a fast response time of <110 ms under exertion of dynamic stimuli ranging from a flying butterfly to a gentle finger touch. Therefore, the PBJT advances the state of the art not only in terms of sensitivity but also in regard to being self-driven and autonomous, making it promising for pressure sensing and other IoT applications.

Piezotronic Transistors Based on GaN Wafer for Highly Sensitive Pressure Sensing with High Linearity and High Stability

Piezotronic effect utilizing strain-induced piezoelectric polarization to achieve interfacial engineering in semiconductor nanodevices exhibits great advantages in applications such as human-machine interfacing, micro/nanoelectromechanical systems, and next-generation sensors and transducers. However, it is a big challenge but highly desired to develop a highly sensitive piezotronic device based on piezoelectric semiconductor wafers and thus to push piezotronics toward wafer-scale applications. Here, we develop a bicrystal barrier-based piezotronic transistor for highly sensitive pressure sensing by p-GaN single-crystal wafers. Its pressure sensitivity can be as high as 19.83 meV/MPa, which is more than 15 times higher than previous bulk-material-based piezotronic transistors and reaches the level of nanomaterial-based piezotronic transistors. Moreover, it can respond to a very small strain of 3.3 × 10-6 to 1.1 × 10-5 with high gauge factors of 1.45 × 105 to 1.38 × 106, which is a very high value among various strain sensors. Additionally, it also exhibits high stability (current stability of 97.32 ± 2.05% and barrier height change stability of 95.85 ± 3.43%) and high linearity (R2 ∼ 0.997 ± 0.002) in pressure sensing. This work proves the possibility of designing a bicrystal barrier as the interface to obtain a strong piezotronic effect and highly sensitive piezotronic devices based on wafers, which contributes to their applications.

Ultra-Low-Power and Wide-Operating-Voltage-Window Capacitive Piezotronic Sensor through Coupling of Piezocharges and Depletion Widths for Tactile Sensing

The rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (AIoT) demands the development of ultra-low-power devices for future advanced technology. In this study, we introduce a capacitive piezotronic sensor specifically designed for tactile sensing, which enables an ultra-low-voltage operation at nearly 0 reading bias conditions with a consistent response within a wide voltage range. This sensor directly detects capacitance changes induced by piezocharges, reflecting perturbation of the effective depletion width, and ensures ultralow power capability by eliminating the necessity of turning on the Schottky diode for the first time. The dynamic response of the sensor demonstrates ultralow power capability and immunity to triboelectric interference, making it particularly suitable for tactile sensing applications in robotics, prosthetics, and wearables. This study provides valuable insights and design guidelines for future ultra-low-power thin-film-based capacitive piezotronic/piezophototronic devices for tactile sensing.

Dual-modal piezotronic transistor for highly sensitive vertical force sensing and lateral strain sensing

Mechanical sensors are mainly divided into two types (vertical force sensing and lateral strain sensing). Up to now, one sensor with two working modes is still a challenge. Here, we demonstrate a structural design concept combing a piezoelectric nano/microwire with a flexible polymer with protrusions that enables a dual-modal piezotronic transistor (DPT) with two working modes for highly sensitive vertical force sensing and lateral strain sensing. For vertical force sensing, DPT exhibits a force sensitivity up to 221.5 N-1 and a minimum identifiable force down to 21 mN, corresponding to a pressure sensitivity of 1.759 eV/MPa. For lateral strain sensing, DPT can respond to a large compression strain (~5.8%) with an on/off ratio up to 386.57 and a gauge factor up to 8988.6. It is a universal design that can integrate vertical force sensing and lateral strain sensing into only one nanodevice, providing a feasible strategy for multimodal devices.

Parallel Aluminum-Cobalt Oxide Nanosheet Arrays with High-Temperature Ferromagnetism

Parallel nanomaterials possess unique properties and show potential applications in industry. Whereas, vertically aligned 2D nanomaterials have plane orientations that are generally chaotic. Simultaneous control of their growth direction and spatial orientation for parallel nanosheets remains a big challenge. Here, a facile preparation of vertically aligned parallel nanosheet arrays of aluminum-cobalt oxide is reported via a collaborative dealloying and hydrothermal method. The parallel growth of nanosheets is attributed to the lattice-matching among the nanosheets, the buffer layer, and the substrate, which is verified by a careful transmission electron microscopy study. Furthermore, the aluminum-cobalt oxide nanosheets exhibit high-temperature ferromagnetism with a 919 K Curie temperature and a 5.22 emu g-1 saturation magnetization at 300 K, implying the potential applications in high-temperature ferromagnetic fields.

Silicon flexoelectronic transistors

It is extraordinarily challenging to implement adaptive and seamless interactions between mechanical triggering and current silicon technology for tunable electronics, human-machine interfaces, and micro/nanoelectromechanical systems. Here, we report Si flexoelectronic transistors (SFTs) that can innovatively convert applied mechanical actuations into electrical control signals and achieve directly electromechanical function. Using the strain gradient-induced flexoelectric polarization field in Si as a "gate," the metal-semiconductor interfacial Schottky barriers' heights and the channel width of SFT can be substantially modulated, resulting in tunable electronic transports with specific characteristics. Such SFTs and corresponding perception system can not only create a high strain sensitivity but also identify where the mechanical force is applied. These findings provide an in-depth understanding about the mechanism of interface gating and channel width gating in flexoelectronics and develop highly sensitive silicon-based strain sensors, which has great potential to construct the next-generation silicon electromechanical nanodevices and nanosystems.

Influences of piezoelectric positive-negative junction on the multi-field coupled waves propagation in the piezoelectric semiconductor

The influences of the piezoelectric positive-negative junction (PN junction) between two semiconductors with different doping types on the multi-field coupled wave propagation are studied in the present work. The layered structures of semiconductors are often used in intelligent devices, and the PN junction plays an important role for performance improvement. Due to the migration and diffusion of carriers, the electric potential and concentration of the carrier are graded distribution in the PN junction. This inhomogeneity results in the reflection and transmission of coupled waves, which are the complex of multiple physical fields including the mechanical, electric, and carrier fields. The state transfer equation method is used to obtain the transfer matrix of the PN junction, and the reflection and transmission waves under the plane strain situation are evaluated numerically. The energy fluxes of the reflection and transmission waves are estimated and used to validate the numerical results by the check of energy conservation. It is found that PN junction effects hinder the wave propagation and drastically enhance the reflection ability of the interface, especially, on the coupled carrier waves, and thus are very important and cannot be ignored for the wave propagation problem. The influences of external applied stress and bias electric field are also discussed.

Piezocatalytic Effect Induced Hydrogen Production from Water over Non-noble Metal Ni Deposited Ultralong GaN Nanowires

Piezoelectric material-based catalysis that relies on an external stress-induced piezopotential has been demonstrated to be an effective strategy toward various chemical reactions. In this work, non-noble metal Ni-decorated ultralong monocrystal GaN nanowires (NWs) were prepared through a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique, followed by a photodeposition method. The piezocatalytic activity of the GaN NWs was enhanced by ∼9 times after depositing the Ni cocatalyst, generating hydrogen gas of ∼88.3 μmol·g^-1·h^-1 under ultrasonic vibration (110 W and 40 kHz), which is comparable to that of Pt-loaded GaN NWs. Moreover, Ni/GaN NWs with smaller diameters (∼100 nm) demonstrated superior piezocatalytic efficiency, which can be attributed to the large piezoelectric potential evidenced by both finite-element analysis and piezoresponse force microscopy measurements. These results demonstrate the promising application potential of non-noble metal loaded GaN nanostructures in hydrogen generation driven by weak mechanical energy from the surrounding environment.

Nanoarchitectonics for Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Nanowires: Toward the Next Generation of Nanoelectromechanical Systems for Environmental Monitoring

Semiconductor nanowires are widely considered as the building blocks that revolutionized many areas of nanosciences and nanotechnologies. The unique features in nanowires, including high electron transport, excellent mechanical robustness, large surface area, and capability to engineer their intrinsic properties, enable new classes of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors in the form of nanowires are a hot spot of research owing to the tremendous possibilities in NEMS, particularly for environmental monitoring and energy harvesting. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the recent progress on the growth, properties and applications of silicon carbide (SiC), group III-nitrides, and diamond nanowires as the materials of choice for NEMS. It begins with a snapshot on material developments and fabrication technologies, covering both bottom-up and top-down approaches. A discussion on the mechanical, electrical, optical, and thermal properties is provided detailing the fundamental physics of WBG nanowires along with their potential for NEMS. A series of sensing and electronic devices particularly for environmental monitoring is reviewed, which further extend the capability in industrial applications. The article concludes with the merits and shortcomings of environmental monitoring applications based on these classes of nanowires, providing a roadmap for future development in this fast-emerging research field.

Strain-Controlled Flexible Graphene/GaN/PDMS Sensors Based on the Piezotronic Effect

Using simple graphene transfer and the laser lift-off process for a non-centrosymmetric GaN layer on a flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate, the piezotronic effect by strain-induced current-voltage measurements at the two end points is studied. By inducing compressive strain on the flexible graphene/GaN/PDMS sensor, the Schottky barrier between the graphene and GaN/PDMS heterojunction can be electro-mechanically modulated by the piezotronic effect. It is observed that the flexible graphene/GaN/PDMS sensor is sensitive to various applied compressive and tensile strains in the positive/negative bias scans. The sensor is extremely sensitive to a compressive strain of -0.1% with a gauge factor of 13.48, which is 3.7 times higher than that of a standard metal strain gauge. Furthermore, the sharp response of the flexible graphene/GaN/PDMS sensor under the -0.1% compressive strain is also investigated. The results of this study herald the development of commercially viable large-scale flexible/wearable strain sensors based on the strain-controlled piezotronic effect in future investigations.

Piezotronic Synapse Based on a Single GaN Microwire for Artificial Sensory Systems

Tactile information is efficiently captured and processed through a complex sensory system combined with mechanoreceptors, neurons, and synapses in human skin. Synapses are essential for tactile signal transmission between pre/post-neurons. However, developing an electronic device that integrates the functions of tactile information sensation and transmission remains a challenge. Here, we present a piezotronic synapse based on a single GaN microwire that can simultaneously achieve the capabilities of strain sensing and synaptic functions. The piezotronic effect in the wurtzite GaN is introduced to strengthen synaptic weight updates (e.g., 330% enhancement at a compressive stress of -0.36%) with pulse trains. A high gauge factor for strain sensing (ranging from 0 to -0.81%) of about 736 is also obtained. Remarkably, the piezotronic synapse enables the neuromorphic hardware achievement of the perception and processing of tactile information in a single micro/nanowire system, demonstrating an advance in biorealistic artificial intelligence systems.

C-V characteristics of piezotronic metal-insulator-semiconductor transistor

Third generation semiconductors for piezotronics and piezo-phototronics, such as ZnO and GaN, have both piezoelectric and semiconducting properties. Piezotronic devices normally exhibit high strain sensitivity because strain-induced piezoelectric charges control or tune the carrier transport at junctions, contacts and interfaces. The distribution width of piezoelectric charges in a junction is one of important parameters. Capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics can be used to estimate the distribution width of strain-induced piezoelectric charges. Piezotronic metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) has been modelled by analytical solutions and numerical simulations in this paper, which can serve as guidance for C-V measurements and experimental designs of piezotronic devices.

Piezotronic Effect Modulated Flexible AlGaN/GaN High-Electron-Mobility Transistors

Flexible electronic technology has attracted great attention due to its wide range of potential applications in the fields of healthcare, robotics, and artificial intelligence, etc. In this work, we have successfully fabricated flexible AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) arrays through a low-damage and wafer-scale substrate transfer technology from a rigid Si substrate. The flexible AlGaN/GaN HEMTs have excellent electrical performances with the I_d,max achieving 290 mA/mm at V_gs = +2 V and the g_m,max reaching to 40 mS/mm. The piezotronic effect provides a different freedom to optimize device performances, and flexible HEMTs can endure the larger mechanical distortions. Based on the piezotronic effect, we applied an external stress to significantly modulate the electrical performances of flexible HEMTs. The piezotronic effect modulated flexible AlGaN/GaN HEMTs exhibit great potential in human-machine interface, intelligent microinductor systems, and active sensors, etc, and introduce an opportunity to sensing or feedback external mechanical stimuli and so on.

Piezotronics and Piezo-phototronics of Third Generation Semiconductor Nanowires

With the fast development of nanoscience and nanotechnology in the last 30 years, semiconductor nanowires have been widely investigated in the areas of both electronics and optoelectronics. Among them, representatives of third generation semiconductors, such as ZnO and GaN, have relatively large spontaneous polarization along their longitudinal direction of the nanowires due to the asymmetric structure in their c-axis direction. Two-way or multiway couplings of piezoelectric, photoexcitation, and semiconductor properties have generated new research areas, such as piezotronics and piezo-phototronics. In this review, an in-depth discussion of the mechanisms and applications of nanowire-based piezotronics and piezo-phototronics is presented. Research on piezotronics and piezo-phototronics has drawn much attention since the effective manipulation of carrier transport, photoelectric properties, etc. through the application of simple mechanical stimuli and, conversely, since the design of new strain sensors based on the strain-induced change in semiconductor properties.

Recent progress in piezotronics and tribotronics

As the electronic technology is approaching its limits of materials and processing, a smart interaction between functional device and environment is a promising way for future electronic technology above the Moore's law. The mechanical signal triggering is the most common and natural way for the smart interactions, which has realized direct interaction between human/ambient and electronics and artificial intelligence. In 2006, the piezotronic effect, as a novel effect, was first proposed by Wang to achieve the effective, adaptive and seamless interactions between electronic devices and the external stress, which utilizes the piezoelectric polarization potential as the virtual gate to tune/control the carriers' transportation in the electronic device. Since then, this new effect has been widely observed in many low-dimensional semiconductors such as ZnO, GaN, CdS nanowires, and 2D MoS₂. In extension, tribotronics was first proposed in 2014 by Wang, which is about the devices manufactured using the electrostatic potential created by triboelectrification as a 'gate' voltage to tune/control energy transformation and electrical transport in semiconductors for the smart interaction between device and environment. Tribotronics has made rapid research progress and many tribotronic functional devices have been studied with a variety of materials, such as tribotronic tactile switch, memory, hydrogen sensor and phototransistor. This review highlights advances in piezotronics and tribotronics with focus on fundamental theories, nanoscale materials, functional devices and simulations. Our emphasis is mainly about their application for third-generation semiconductor. The concepts and results presented in this review show that the piezotronics and tribotronics will facilitate the development of MEMS/NEMS, self-powered sensing, man-computer interfacing, and active wearable electronics.

Piezo-Potential Generation in Capacitive Flexible Sensors Based on GaN Horizontal Wires

We report an example of the realization of a flexible capacitive piezoelectric sensor based on the assembly of horizontal c&macr;-polar long Gallium nitride (GaN) wires grown by metal organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) with the Boostream^&reg; technique spreading wires on a moving liquid before their transfer on large areas. The measured signal (<0.6 V) obtained by a punctual compression/release of the device shows a large variability attributed to the dimensions of the wires and their in-plane orientations. The cause of this variability and the general operating mechanisms of this flexible capacitive device are explained by finite element modelling simulations. This method allows considering the full device composed of a metal/dielectric/wires/dielectric/metal stacking. We first clarify the mechanisms involved in the piezo-potential generation by mapping the charge and piezo-potential in a single wire and studying the time-dependent evolution of this phenomenon. GaN wires have equivalent dipoles that generate a tension between metallic electrodes only when they have a non-zero in-plane projection. This is obtained in practice by the conical shape occurring spontaneously during the MOVPE growth. The optimal aspect ratio in terms of length and conicity (for the usual MOVPE wire diameter) is determined for a bending mechanical loading. It is suggested to use 60⁻120 &micro;m long wires (i.e., growth time less than 1 h). To study further the role of these dipoles, we consider model systems with in-plane 1D and 2D regular arrays of horizontal wires. It is shown that a strong electrostatic coupling and screening occur between neighbouring horizontal wires depending on polarity and shape. This effect, highlighted here only from calculations, should be taken into account to improve device performance.

Double-Channel Piezotronic Transistors for Highly Sensitive Pressure Sensing

Piezotronic transistors (PTs) that utilize inner crystal potential generated by interface piezoelectric polarization charges as the gate voltage have great potential applications in force/pressure-triggered or controlled electronic devices, sensors, human-machine communication, and microelectromechanical systems. Although the performance of PTs has been partially enhanced by exploring special materials with different geometries or high piezoelectricity, few studies have been focused on the structure design of PT itself to more effectively enhance the performance and structural reliability. Here, an integrated double-channel plane piezotronic transistor is invented as a high-performance pressure-sensing technology. Owing to the double-channel modulation and the plane structure, the PT has the merits of high pressure sensitivity (84.2-104.4 meV/MPa) and high structural reliability, which provides the opportunity for great applications, such as human-computer interfacing, biosensing, and health monitoring.

Piezo-Phototronic Matrix via a Nanowire Array

Piezoelectric semiconductors, such as ZnO and GaN, demonstrate multiproperty coupling effects toward various aspects of mechanical, electrical, and optical excitation. In particular, the three-way coupling among semiconducting, photoexcitation, and piezoelectric characteristics in wurtzite-structured semiconductors is established as a new field, which was first coined as piezo-phototronics by Wang in 2010. The piezo-phototronic effect can controllably modulate the charge-carrier generation, separation, transport, and/or recombination in optical-electronic processes by modifying the band structure at the metal-semiconductor or semiconductor-semiconductor heterojunction/interface. Here, the progress made in using the piezo-phototronic effect for enhancing photodetectors, pressure sensors, light-emitting diodes, and solar cells is reviewed. In comparison with previous works on a single piezoelectric semiconducting nanowire, piezo-phototronic nanodevices built using nanowire arrays provide a promising platform for fabricating integrated optoelectronics with the realization of high-spatial-resolution imaging and fast responsivity.

Piezotronic effect tuned AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor

The piezotronic effect utilizes strain-induced piezoelectric polarization charges to tune the carrier transportation across the interface/junction. We fabricated a high-performance AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT), and the transport property was proven to be enhanced by applying an external stress for the first time. The enhanced source-drain current was also observed at any gate voltage and the maximum enhancement of the saturation current was up to 21% with 15 N applied stress (0.18 GPa at center) at -1 V gate voltage. The physical mechanism of HEMT with/without external compressive stress conditions was carefully illustrated and further confirmed by a self-consistent solution of the Schrödinger-Poisson equations. This study proves the cause-and-effect relationship between the piezoelectric polarization effect and 2D electron gas formation, which provides a tunable solution to enhance the device performance. The strain tuned HEMT has potential applications in human-machine interface and the security control of the power system.

Ultrasensitive Vertical Piezotronic Transistor Based on ZnO Twin Nanoplatelet

High sensitivity of pressure/strain sensors is the key to accurately evaluating external mechanical stimuli and could become more important in future generations of human-machine interfaces and artificial skin. Here we report the study of a two-terminal piezotronic transistor based on ZnO twin nanoplatelets (TNPT). Owing to the mirror symmetrical structure of ZnO twin nanplatelet, compressive pressure-induced positive piezoelectric polarization charges created at both metal-semiconductor interfaces can simultaneously lower both Schottky barrier heights and thus significantly modulate the carrier transport. Our device exhibits the highest pressure sensitivity of 1448.08-1677.53 meV/MPa, which is more than ∼20 times larger than the highest value reported previously, and a fast response time of <5 ms. In addition, it can be used as a photodector with an ultrahigh external photoresponsivity of ∼1.45 × 10⁴ AW^-1, which is ∼10⁵ times larger in magnitude than that of commercial UV photodetectors. The coupling between the mirror symmetrical structure and strong piezotronic effect in ZnO twin nanoplatelets may enable the development of ultrasensitive pressure/strain sensors for various applications such as artificial skin, health monitoring, and adaptive biomedical probes.

Ultrasensitive 2D ZnO Piezotronic Transistor Array for High Resolution Tactile Imaging

In this paper, a new kind of 2D piezotronic transistor (PT) with the highest sensitivity till date has been designed and demonstrated, and the 2DPT array with ultrahigh spatial resolution has been developed through assembling ZnO nanoplatelets into ordered nanoplatelet array. As active sensors by directly converting applied mechanical actuations into electrical control signals without applying gate voltage, the ZnO 2DPT array has a great advantage as a fundamental component of piezotronics. The 2DPT array paves the way for a large-scale and integrated production of two terminal vertical transistors, which will contribute to its application in many fields such as human-machine interfacing, smart sensor, and processor systems.

Tuning carrier lifetime in InGaN/GaN LEDs via strain compensation for high-speed visible light communication

In recent years, visible light communication (VLC) technology has attracted intensive attention due to its huge potential in superior processing ability and fast data transmission. The transmission rate relies on the modulation bandwidth, which is predominantly determined by the minority-carrier lifetime in III-group nitride semiconductors. In this paper, the carrier dynamic process under a stress field was studied for the first time, and the carrier recombination lifetime was calculated within the framework of quantum perturbation theory. Owing to the intrinsic strain due to the lattice mismatch between InGaN and GaN, the wave functions for the holes and electrons are misaligned in an InGaN/GaN device. By applying an external strain that "cancels" the internal strain, the overlap between the wave functions can be maximized so that the lifetime of the carrier is greatly reduced. As a result, the maximum speed of a single chip was increased from 54 MHz up to 117 MHz in a blue LED chip under 0.14% compressive strain. Finally, a bandwidth contour plot depending on the stress and operating wavelength was calculated to guide VLC chip design and stress optimization.

Piezo-Phototronic Effect in a Quantum Well Structure

With enhancements in the performance of optoelectronic devices, the field of piezo-phototronics has attracted much attention, and several theoretical works have been reported based on semiclassical models. At present, the feature size of optoelectronic devices are rapidly shrinking toward several tens of nanometers, which results in the quantum confinement effect. Starting from the basic piezoelectricity equation, Schrödinger equation, Poisson equation, and Fermi's golden rule, a self-consistent theoretical model is proposed to study the piezo-phototronic effect in the framework of perturbation theory in quantum mechanics. The validity and universality of this model are well-proven with photoluminescence measurements in a single GaN/InGaN quantum well and multiple GaN/InGaN quantum wells. This study provides important insight into the working principle of nanoscale piezo-phototronic devices as well as guidance for the future device design.