Single Te Nanoribbon for Disrupting Conventional Sensitivity-Power Limits of Flexible Strain Sensors

Flexible strain sensors are pivotal for the advancement of robotics, wearable healthcare, and human-machine interaction in the post-Moore era. However, conventional materials struggle to simultaneously achieve high sensitivity, a broad strain range, and low power consumption for cutting-edge applications. In this work, the issue is addressed through single crystal 1D tellurium nanoribbons (NRs), which are synthesized on SiO₂/Si substrate by hydrogen-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. After transferring onto polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates via a dry transfer process, single Te NR is patterned into a flexible strain sensor using a photolithography process. With the nickel ohmic contacts, the device demonstrates a maximum gauge factor (GF) of 105 over a broad strain range from -1.0% to 1.0%. Besides, the flexible strain sensor exhibits robust stability under 1000 cycles and ultralow power consumption at the picowatt level. The results offer a unique solution to break the sensitivity-power consumption trade-off, highlighting Te NRs as a promising platform for next-generation energy-efficient strain sensing electronics.