Piezoelectric energy harvesting characteristics of GaN nanowires prepared by a magnetic field-assisted CVD process

Various piezoelectric nanostructures have been extensively studied for competitive energy harvesting applications. Here, GaN nanowires grown by a nonconventional magnetic field-assisted chemical vapor deposition process were investigated to characterize the piezoelectric energy harvesting characteristics. As a controlling parameter, only the growth time was changed from 15 min to 90 min to obtain different crystallinity and morphology of the nanowires. Energy harvesting characteristics were found to depend largely on the growth time. A longer growth time tended to lead to an increased output current, which is reasonable when considering the enhanced charge potentials and crystallinity. A maximum output current of ∼14.1 nA was obtained for the 90 min-processed nanowires.