Stable electron field emission from triangular-shaped ZnO nanoplate arrays with low localheating effects

Abstract

We show here successful large-area growth of triangular-shaped ZnO nanoplatearrays on silicon substrates and the investigation of their electron field emissionproperties. The special geometric-shaped nanoplate emitters have a very largesurface area for heat dissipation and large field enhancement factors. These lead tovery stable and low-threshold field emission. The fluctuations of the macroscopiccurrent density are less than 1.5%. The threshold macroscopic field is about4.3 V µm−1 at an emitter–anodegap of 525 µm. The stable electron field emission is ascribed to low local heating effects, originating fromthe superior heat dissipation ability and the low Joule heating of the sheet-like emitters.Plotting Fowler–Nordheim curves yields straight lines with small deviations at lowand high macroscopic fields. The origins of these deviations are discussed. Ourexperiments demonstrate a promising design for stable and efficient emitters.