Growth and field emission of tungsten oxide nanotip arrays on ITO glass substrate

High-density and uniformly aligned tungsten oxide nanotip arrays have been deposited by a conventional thermal evaporation on ITO glass substrates without any catalysts or additives. The temperature of substrate was 450-500 °C. It was shown that the tungsten oxide nanotips are single-crystal grown along [0 1 0] direction. For commercial applications, field emission of the tungsten oxide nanotip arrays was characterized in a poor vacuum at room temperature. The field emission behaviors are in agreement with Fowler-Nordheim theory. The turn-on field is 2.8 V μm⁻¹ as d is 0.3 mm. The excellent field emission performances indicated that the tungsten oxide nanotip arrays grown by the present approach are a good candidate for application in vacuum microelectronic devices.     

Field emission properties of electrophoretic deposition carbon nanotubes film

The field emission properties of electrophoretic deposition(EPD) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) film have been improved by depositing CNTs onto the titanium (Ti)-coated Si substrate, followed by vacuum annealing at 900 °C for 2 h, and the enhanced emission mechanism has been studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy. Field emission measurements showed that the threshold electric field was decreased and the emission current stability was improved compared to that of EPD CNTs film on bare Si substrate. XRD and Raman spectroscopy investigations revealed that vacuum annealing treatment not only decreased the structural defects of CNTs but made a titanium carbide interfacial layer formed between CNTs and substrate. The field emission enhancement could be attributed to the improved graphitization of CNTs and the improved contact properties between CNTs and substrate including electrical conductivity and adhesive strength due to the formed conductive titanium carbide.     

Efficient field emission from well-oriented Cu2O film

Well-oriented Cu₂O films comprising of octahedral-shaped crystals were grown directly on copper foil via an hydrothermal treatment. The well-oriented films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Field emission from the film showed good emission properties, and, the electron emission turn-on field (E_to) and threshold field (E_thr) are about 9.6 and 13.4 V/μm respectively, which is similar to the values reported for CuO nanofiber, although the latter has a much larger size. The corresponding Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) plots showed a linear behavior. The sharp corners of the tips are considered as main electron emitters and account for its good performance.     

Enhanced Field Emission from Well-Patterned Silicon Nanoporous Pillar Arrays

The silicon nanoporous pillar array （Si-NPA） is synthesized by using hydrothermal etching method, and the electron field emission properties are studied. The results show that Si-NPA has a low turn-on field of 1.48 V/μm at the emission current of 0.1 μA and its field emission is relatively stable. The field emission enhancement of Si-NPA is believed to originate from its unique morphology and structure. Our finding demonstrates that the Si-NPA is a promising candidate material for field emission applications.     

Field emission and photoluminescence characteristics of ZnS nanowires via vapor phase growth

Large-area ZnS nanowires were synthesized through a vapor phase deposition method. X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy results show that the products are composed of single crystalline ZnS nanowires with a cubic structure. The nanowires have sharp tips and are distributed uniformly on silicon substrates. The diameter of the bases is in the range of 320-530 nm and that of the tips is around 20-30 nm. The strong ultraviolet emission in the photoluminescence spectra also demonstrates that the ZnS nanowires are of high crystalline perfection. Field emission measurements reveal that the ZnS nanowires have a fairly low threshold field, which may be ascribed to their very sharp tips, rough surfaces and high crystal quality. The perfect field emission ability of the ZnS nanowires makes them a promising candidate for the fabrication of flexible cold cathodes.     

Field emission from carbon nanotubes: perspectives for applications and clues to the emission mechanism

We report on the extensive characterization of carbon nanotube electron field emitters. We studied the emission behavior of single-wall, closed and opened arc-discharge multi-wall, and catalytically grown multi-wall nanotubes, as single emitters and in film form. The nanotube field emitters show excellent field emission properties, but significant differences were observed between the different types of nanotubes. To obtain good performances as well as long emitter lifetimes, the nanotubes should be multi-walled and have closed, well-ordered tips. Complementary results such as energy distribution and luminescence induced by the field emission give further precious indications on the field emission mechanism. The large field amplification factor, arising from the small radius of curvature of the nanotube tips, is partly responsible for the good emission characteristics. Additional evidence however shows that the density of states at the tip is non-metallic, appearing in the form of localized states with well-defined energy levels. Received: 15 May 1999 / Accepted: 18 May 1999 / Published online: 29 July 1999     

Enhanced field emission from Si doped nanocrystalline AlN thin films

Si doped and undoped nanocrystalline aluminum nitride thin films were deposited on various substrates by direct current sputtering technique. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the formation of phase pure hexagonal aluminum nitride with a single peak corresponding to (1 0 0) reflection of AlN with lattice constants, a = 0.3114 nm and c = 0.4986 nm. Energy dispersive analysis of X-rays confirmed the presence of Si in the doped AlN films. Atomic force microscopic studies showed that the average particle size of the film prepared at substrate temperature 200 °C was 9.5 nm, but when 5 at.% Si was incorporated the average particle size increased to ∼21 nm. Field emission study indicated that, with increasing Si doping concentration, the emission characteristics have been improved. The turn-on field (E_to) was 15.0 (±0.7) V/μm, 8.0 (±0.4) V/μm and 7.8 (±0.5) V/μm for undoped, 3 at.% and 5 at.% Si doped AlN films respectively and the maximum current density of 0.27 μA/cm² has been observed for 5 at.% Si doped nanocrystalline AlN film. It was also found that the dielectric properties were highly dependent on Si doping.     

Local field-emission characteristic of individual AlN cone fabricated by focused ion-beam etching method

Highly (0 0 2)-oriented AlN film was deposited on n-type (1 0 0)-oriented silicon substrates by the radio frequency magnetron sputtering method. An individual AlN cone with high aspect ratio was fabricated by the focused ion-beam (FIB) etching process in the surface of an as-formed AlN film. This etching method can easily control the tip radius and height to obtain AlN cones with different aspect ratios. The field-emission property of the individual AlN cone was measured in a scanning electron microscopy system equipped with a movable probe as the anode above the AlN tip. The results indicated that the as-formed single AlN cone with high aspect ratio possessed good field-emission ability although it only had a tiny emission area. Compared with a single Si tip fabricated by the same method, a single AlN cone exhibits better field-emission ability, and hence, has great potential as a promising candidate of point electron source for application in vacuum electronic devices.     

Field emission from nano-patterned amorphous carbon

Electron emission from nano-patterned amorphous carbon is realized in this paper. The patterned carbon consists of islands with size of tens of nanometers, and is formed by etching uniform carbon film in oxygen plasma using a bismuth island-like film as the mask. Uniform and stable electron emission is reproducibly obtained, and the emission efficiency is above 2% at an anode voltage of 3 kV. Small carbon particles between large islands are supposed to be necessary for stable electron emission.     

Giant field amplification in tungsten nanowires

The original RF-sputtering-assisted technique to produce metal wires with tip-curvature radii at the nanometer scale was developed and applied to tungsten. The wire tips were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Field-emission tests of those wires exhibit excellent performance and reliable processability. Very high field-amplification factors of 18000 were demonstrated. Received: 1 November 2002 / Accepted: 30 November 2002 / Published online: 11 April 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +1-972/479-4482, E-mail: alexander.umnov@fla.fujitsu.com     

Field emission and current-voltage properties of boron nitride nanotubes

We have measured electrical transport properties of boron nitride nanotubes using an in situ manipulation stage inside a transmission electron microscope. Stable currents were measured in a field emission geometry, but in contact the nanotubes are insulating at low bias. At high bias, the nanotubes show stable, reversible breakdown current.     

Field emission from ZnS nanorods synthesized by radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique

The field emission property of zinc sulphides nanorods synthesized in the thin film form on Si substrates has been studied. It is seen that ZnS nanorod thin films showed good field emission properties with a low-macroscopic turn-on field (2.9-6.3 V/μm). ZnS nanorods were synthesized by using radio frequency magnetron sputtering of a polycrystalline prefabricated ZnS target at a relatively higher pressure (10⁻¹ mbar) and at a lower substrate temperature (233-273 K) without using any catalyst. Transmission electron microscopic image showed the formation of ZnS nanorods with high aspect ratio (>60). The field emission data were analysed using Fowler-Nordhiem theory and the nearly straight-line nature of the F-N plots confirmed cold field emission of electrons. It was also found that the turn-on field decreased with the decrease of nanorod's diameters. The optical properties of the ZnS nanorods were also studied. From the measurements of transmittance of the films deposited on glass substrates, the direct allowed bandgap values have been calculated and they were in the range 3.83-4.03 eV. The thickness of the films was ∼600 nm.     

Modulation of field emission properties of vertically aligned ZnO nanorods with aspect ratio and number density

Vertically aligned ZnO nanorod arrays with different aspect ratios were synthesized by hybrid wet chemical route. Modulation of the field emission properties (FE) with aspect ratio of ZnO nanorods was examined. With the increase in the aspect ratio, the emission current density increases from 0.02 to 8 μA/cm² at 7.0 V/μm. Turn-on voltage was seen to decrease from 9.6 to 7 V/μm at a current density of 10 μA/cm² with the increase in aspect ratio in the ZnO films. The interrelation between the FE characteristics (emission thresholds, current density, surface uniformity, etc.) and microstructure of the ZnO nanostructure obtained from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) was discussed. Quality of the ZnO nanorods was also examined by using Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It was found that the observed enhancements of FE characteristics could mainly be attributed to the increase in aspect ratio and associated number density of ZnO nanorods.     

High-field electron emission of carbon nanotubes grown on carbon fibers

Carbon nanotubes with uniform density were synthesized on carbon fiber substrate by the floating catalyst method. The morphology and microstructure were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The results of field emission showed that the emission current density of carbon nanotubes/carbon fibers was 10 μA/cm² and 1 mA/cm² at the field of 1.25 and 2.25 V/μm, respectively, and the emission current density could be 10 and 81.2 mA/cm² with the field of 4.5 and 7 V/μm, respectively. Using uniform and sparse density distribution of carbon nanotubes on carbon fiber substrate, the tip predominance of carbon nanotubes can be exerted, and simultaneously the effect of screening between adjacent carbon nanotubes on field emission performance can also be effectively decreased. Therefore, the carbon nanotubes/carbon fibers composite should be a good candidate for a cold cathode material.     

Enhanced Field Emission of Composite Au Nanostructured Network on Si Nanoporous Pillar Array

Nanocrystallites Au particles are deposited on a well-aligned silicon nanoporous pillar array （Si-NPA） surface through immersion plating to form an Au/Si-NPA composite system. It is found that a large number of Au nanoparticles are accumulated on the bottom of Si pillars to form a regular network structure. By studying the field emission properties of such an Au/Si-NPA composite system, we find that the Au/Si-NPA exhibits good field emission properties, with staring field about 2 V/μm and emission current density 67μA/cm^2 at 7.59 V/μm. The enhanced field emission can be deduced from the unique morphology and structure of Au/Si-NPA.     

Characterization and field emission characteristics of carbon nanotubes modified by titanium carbide

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were modified by depositing a thin layer of titanium film on the surface using magnetron sputtering method, followed by vacuum annealing at 900 °C for 2 h. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed that the as-deposited thin titanium film reacted with carbon atoms to form titanium carbide after annealing. The experiment results show that the thickness of sputter-deposited titanium film has significant effect on the field emission J-E characteristic of modified CNTs film. The titanium carbide-modified CNTs film obtained by controlling the titanium sputtering time to 2 min showed an improved field emission characteristics with a significant reduction in the turn-on electric field and an obvious increase in the emission current density as well as an improvement in emission stability. The improvement of field emission characteristics achieved is attributed to the low work function and good resistance to ion bombardment of titanium carbide.     

Field emission properties of carbon nanotube film using a spray method

We fabricated carbon nanotube (CNT) emitters by a spray method using a CNT suspension with ethanol. Indium with a low melting pointing metal or indium tin oxide (ITO) was deposited on the glass substrate. The CNTs were sprayed on these layers and thermally annealed. The sprayed CNTs on an ITO were obtained a high emission current density, field enhancement factor, and a uniform emission pattern than the sprayed CNTs on an ITO layer. We found that the sprayed emitters on the indium layer had good field emission characteristics because of the strong adherence between the metal layer and CNTs.     

Enhancement of Field Emission Properties in La-Doped ZnO Films Prepared by Magnetron Sputtering

Field emissions (FE) from La-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) films are both experimentally and theoretically investigated. Owing to the La-doped effect, the FE characteristic of ZnO films is remarkably enhanced compared with an undoped sample, and a startling low turn-on electric field of about 0.4V/μm (about 2.5V/μm for the undoped ZnO films) is obtained at an emission current density of 1μA/cm² and the stable current density reaches 1mA/cm² at an applied field of about 2.1V/μm. A self-consistent theoretical analysis shows that the novel FE enhancement of the La-doped sample may be originated from its smaller work function. Due to the effect of doping with La, the Fermi energy level lifts, electrons which tunnelling from surface barrier are consumedly enhancing, and then leads to a huge change of field emission current. Interestingly, it suggests a new effective method to improve the FE properties of film materials.     

Growth of carbon nanofibers on aligned zinc oxide nanorods and their field emission properties

Carbon nanofibers were grown by electrodeposition technique onto aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods deposited by hybrid wet chemical route on glass substrates. X-ray diffraction traces indicated very strong peak for reflections from (0 0 2) planes of ZnO. The Raman spectra were dominated by the presence of G band at about 1597 cm⁻¹ corresponding to the E_2g tangential stretching mode of an ordered graphitic structure with sp² hybridization and a D band at about 1350 cm⁻¹ originating from disordered carbon. Fourier transformed infrared studies indicated the presence of a distinct characteristic absorption peak at ∼511 cm⁻¹ for Zn-O stretching mode. Photoluminescence spectra indicated band edge luminescence of ZnO at ∼3.146 eV along with a low intensity peak at ∼0.877 eV arising out of carbon nanofibers. Field emission properties of these films and their dependence on the CNF coverage on ZnO nanorods are reported here. The average field enhancement factor as determined from the slope of the FN plot was found to vary between 1 × 10³ and 3 × 10³. Both the values of turn-on field and threshold field for CNF/ZnO were lower than pure ZnO nanorods.     

Morphology-control of VO2 (B) nanostructures in hydrothermal synthesis and their field emission properties

VO₂ (B) nanostructures were synthesized via a facile hydrothermal process using V₂O₅ as source material and oxalic acid as reductant. Three nanostructures of nanorods, nanocarambolas and nanobundles were found existing in the products, and a continuous changing of morphology was found in the synthesis process, during which the proportion of these three types of nanostructures can be adjusted by altering the concentrations of oxalic acid. The microstructures were evaluated using X-ray diffraction and scanning and transmission electron microscopies, respectively. FE properties measurement of these three types of nanostructures showed that the nanobundles have the best field emission performance with a turn-on field of ∼1.4 V/μm and a threshold field of ∼5.38 V/μm. These characteristics make VO₂ (B) nanostructures a competitive cathode material in field emission devices.