Piezoelectric Characterization of Individual Zinc Oxide Nanobelt Probed by Piezoresponse Force Microscope

Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) is used to measure the effective piezoelectric coefficient (d33) of an individual (0001) surface dominated zinc oxide nanobelt lying on a conductive surface. Based on references of bulk (0001) ZnO and x-cut quartz, the effective piezoelectric coefficient d33 of ZnO nanobelt is found to be frequency dependent and varies from 14.3 pm/V to 26.7 pm/V, which is much larger than that of the bulk (0001) ZnO of 9.93 pm/V. The results support the application of ZnO nanobelts as nanosensors and nanoactuators.