Proposal for a graphene based nano-electro-mechanical reference piezoresistor

TL;DR

This paper investigates the anisotropic piezoresistance of graphene in ballistic and diffusive regimes, proposing a graphene-based nano-sensor as a strain-insensitive reference piezoresistor for advanced NEMS applications.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum transport model analysis of graphene's angular gauge factor and proposes a novel ballistic graphene nano-sensor for strain measurement.

Findings

Angular gauge factor varies sinusoidally with strain angle.

Critical angles where gauge factor is zero are identified.

Proposed graphene sensor is resistant to residual and unwanted strains.

Abstract

Motivated by the recent prediction of anisotropy in piezoresistance of ballistic graphene along longitudinal and transverse directions, we investigate the angular gauge factor of graphene in the ballistic and diffusive regimes using highly efficient quantum transport models. It is shown that the angular guage factor in both ballistic and diffusive graphene between $0^{\circ}$ to $90^{\circ}$ bears a sinusoidal relation with a periodicity of $\pi$ due to the reduction of six-fold symmetry into a two-fold symmetry as a result of applied strain. The angular gauge factor is zero at critical angles $20^{\circ}$ and $56^{\circ}$ in ballistic and diffusive regimes respectively. Based on these findings, we propose a graphene based ballistic nano-sensor which can be used as a reference piezoresistor in a Wheatstone bridge read-out technique. The reference sensors proposed here are unsusceptible to inherent residual strain present in strain sensors and unwanted strain generated by the vapours in explosives detection. The theoretical models developed in this paper can be applied to explore similar applications in other 2D-Dirac materials. The proposals made here potentially pave the way for implementation of NEMS strain sensors based on the principle of ballistic transport, which will eventually replace MEMS piezoresistance sensors with a decrease in feature size. The presence of strain insenstive ``critical angle'' in graphene may be useful in flexible wearable electronics also.