Nano Express
Field emission enhancement of Au-Si nano-particle-decorated silicon nanowires
Author affiliations
Key Laboratory of Beam Technology and Material Modification of Ministry of Education, College of Nuclear Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, P. R. China
Citation and License
Nanoscale Research Letters 2011, 6:176 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-6-176
Published: 25 February 2011Abstract
Au-Si nano-particle-decorated silicon nanowire arrays have been fabricated by Au film deposition on silicon nanowire array substrates and then post-thermal annealing under hydrogen atmosphere. Field emission measurements illustrated that the turn-on fields of the non-annealed Au-coated SiNWs were 6.02 to 7.51 V/μm, higher than that of the as-grown silicon nanowires, which is about 5.01 V/μm. Meanwhile, after being annealed above 650°C, Au-Si nano-particles were synthesized on the top surface of the silicon nanowire arrays and the one-dimensional Au-Si nano-particle-decorated SiNWs had a much lower turn-on field, 1.95 V/μm. The results demonstrated that annealed composite silicon nanowire array-based electron field emitters may have great advantages over many other emitters.
