Facile fabrication of scalable patterned nickel nanocone arrays for field emission applications

Abstract

In this report, facile fabrication of wafer-scale nickel (Ni) nanocone (NC) dot arrays as field emitters is demonstrated. Ni NC dot arrays are fabricated on silicon wafers using conventional photolithography and electrodeposition. Ni NCs with an average height of 400 nm grew in less than 3 min. Patterned Ni NC dot arrays exhibited enhanced field emission compared with plain Ni NCs. Field emission measurements of the plain NCs and patterned NC dot arrays revealed that the turn-on field of patterned NC dot arrays (3.23 V/μm) is lower than that of plain NCs (3.93 V/μm), while the field enhancement factor of patterned NC dot arrays (5087) is greater than that of plain NCs (2705). Our approach to form patterned Ni NC dot arrays is a simple, fast, cost-effective, and scalable method to fabricate effective field emitters. It is suitable for producing large-scale, patterned NC arrays for application in flat-panel displays and electron sources.