Contact Electrification Field-Effect

Utilizing the coupled metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor and triboelectric nanogenerator, we demonstrate an external force triggered/controlled contact electrification field-effect transistor (CE-FET), in which an electrostatic potential across the gate and source is created by a vertical contactelectrificationbetweenthegatematerialandaforeignobject,andthecarriertransportbetween drain and source can be tuned/controlled by the contact-induced electrostatic potential instead of the traditional gate voltage. With the two contacted frictional layers vertically separated by 80 μm, the drain current is decreased from 13.4 to 1.9 μA in depletion mode and increased from 2.4 to 12.1 μ Ai n enhancementmodeatadrainvoltageof5V.Comparedwiththepiezotronicdevicesthatarecontrolledby the strain-induced piezoelectric polarization charged at an interface/junction, the CE-FET has greatly expanded the sensing range and choices of materials in conjunction with semiconductors. The CE-FET is likely to have important applications in sensors, humansilicon technology interfacing, MEMS, nanorobotics, and active flexible electronics. Based on the basic principle of the CE-FET, a field of tribotronics is proposed for devices fabricated using the electrostaticpotentialcreatedbytriboelectrificationasagatevoltagetotune/controlchargecarriertransportinconventionalsemiconductordevices.By the three-way coupling among triboelectricity, semiconductor, and photoexcitation, plenty of potentially important research fields are expected to be explored in the near future.