Abstract
The effects of post-thermal treatment and rod diameter on the field emission (FE) properties ofRuO2 nanorod films are reported. The FE properties ofRuO2 nanorods with pyramidal tips have been studied on samples of two averagerod diameters, 48 and 35 nm. Both of them exhibit a transient behaviour inemission current under a fixed electric field. Thermal annealing at 400 and500 °C generally improves the FE characteristics in lowering the emission barriers of nanorods, asmanifested by a decrease in the turn-on field, the threshold field, the slope of theFowler–Nordheim plot, and the time-span of the transient period. Reduction inemission barrier appears to be particularly evident for the 35 nm nanorods. Yet500 °C annealing also degrades the emission current stability of 35 nm nanorods.The standard deviation of emission current density of 35 nm nanorods after500 °C annealing is around 44%. On the other hand, both specimens after400 °C annealing display a much more stable emission current density, whosefluctuations are 26% of their average values. The transient period isregarded as a consequence of gas molecules being desorbed from theRuO2 tips during emission, resulting in a reduction of the emission barrier. Thermal annealingweakens the bonding between the adsorbed gas and the tip surface, and facilitates the gasdesorption and electron tunnelling processes.
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