Nano strain-amplifier: making ultra-sensitive piezoresistance in   nanowires possible without the need of quantum and surface charge effects
  This paper presents an innovative nano strain-amplifier employed to significantly enhance the sensitivity of piezoresistive strain sensors. Inspired from the dogbone structure, the nano strain-amplifier consists of a nano thin frame released from the substrate, where nanowires were formed at the centre of the frame. Analytical and numerical results indicated that a nano strain-amplifier significantly increases the strain induced into a free standing nanowire, resulting in a large change in their electrical conductance. The proposed structure was demonstrated in p-type cubic silicon carbide nanowires fabricated using a top down process. The experimental data showed that the nano strain-amplifier can enhance the sensitivity of SiC strain sensors at least 5.4 times larger than that of the conventional structures. This result indicates the potential of the proposed strain-amplifier for ultra-sensitive mechanical sensing applications. 
Hoang-Phuong Phan, Toan Dinh, Takahiro Kozeki, Tuan-Khoa Nguyen,   Afzaal Qamar, Takahiro Namazu, Nam-Trung Nguyen, and Dzun...
physics.ins-det cond-mat.mes-hall