Investigation of the temperature dependence of the field emission of ZnO nanorods

Temperature-dependent field emission characteristics of ZnO nanorods are reported in this study. The work function of ZnO nanorods is notably reduced with the temperature increasing from 100 to 600 K. The electron emission properties of ZnO nanorods are very sensitive to temperature. The turn-on field decreases significantly from 7.5 to 1.9 V µm−1, while the emission current increases remarkably with the increasing temperature. Moreover, the real-time images (recorded by CCD camera) of field emission from ZnO nanorods support the above I–V results. The strongly thermo-enhanced emission of ZnO nanorods suggests that the increasing temperature could significantly excite the electrons on the defect-dependent donor levels into a vacuum through a narrowed tunnel by an applied electric field.

[1]  Vu Thien Binh,et al.  Hot nanotubes: stable heating of individual multiwall carbon nanotubes to 2000 k induced by the field-emission current. , 2002, Physical review letters.

[2]  D. G. Walker,et al.  High-Temperature Electron Emission From Diamond Films , 2001, Heat Transfer: Volume 4 — Combustion and Energy Systems.

[3]  R. Davis,et al.  Electron emission characteristics of GaN pyramid arrays grown via organometallic vapor phase epitaxy , 1998 .

[4]  Bin Xiang,et al.  Efficient field emission from ZnO nanoneedle arrays , 2003 .

[5]  C. Lieber,et al.  Nanowire Nanosensors for Highly Sensitive and Selective Detection of Biological and Chemical Species , 2001, Science.

[6]  Kun-Hong Lee,et al.  Template-based carbon nanotubes and their application to a field emitter , 2001 .

[7]  Cesare Soci,et al.  Rational synthesis of p-type zinc oxide nanowire arrays using simple chemical vapor deposition. , 2007, Nano letters.

[8]  J. C. Li,et al.  Field emission property improvement of ZnO nanowires coated with amorphous carbon and carbon nitride films , 2005 .

[9]  Q. Fu,et al.  Self-assembly of aligned ZnO nanoscrews: Growth, configuration, and field emission , 2005 .

[10]  Bixia Lin,et al.  Green luminescent center in undoped zinc oxide films deposited on silicon substrates , 2001 .

[11]  Tae Jae Lee,et al.  Field emission from well-aligned zinc oxide nanowires grown at low temperature , 2002 .

[12]  R. Fowler,et al.  Electron Emission in Intense Electric Fields , 1928 .

[13]  Jun Li,et al.  Synthesis and Raman analysis of 1D-ZnO nanostructure via vapor phase growth , 2005 .

[14]  Jun Jiao,et al.  ZnO nanowires formed on tungsten substrates and their electron field emission properties , 2003 .

[15]  L. Liao,et al.  Electron field emission studies on ZnO nanowires , 2005 .

[16]  H. Dai,et al.  Self-oriented regular arrays of carbon nanotubes and their field emission properties , 1999, Science.

[17]  Xiangfeng Duan,et al.  Highly Polarized Photoluminescence and Photodetection from Single Indium Phosphide Nanowires , 2001, Science.

[18]  C. Balasubramanian,et al.  Field emission from open ended aluminum nitride nanotubes , 2002 .

[19]  Yiying Wu,et al.  Room-Temperature Ultraviolet Nanowire Nanolasers , 2001, Science.

[20]  C. Soci,et al.  ZnO nanowire UV photodetectors with high internal gain. , 2007, Nano letters.