Tuning the structural, optical, local work function and field emission properties of molybdenum oxide thin films with oxygen partial pressures

Abstract

We report a simple method involving optimization of oxygen partial pressure (OPP) in the after-growth annealing process of MoOx nanostructured thin films that results in a better field emitter with a low turn-on field and a high field enhancement factor. A ≈250 nm thick molybdenum oxide thin film has been synthesized on Si(100) substrates by the physical vapor deposition technique. The as-deposited thin films are annealed at 600 °C for 30 min in different OPPs, such as ≈2.1 × 10−9 Pa, ≈2.1 × 10−1 Pa, and ≈2.1 × 104 Pa. The effect of postannealing on the morphology, crystal structure, stoichiometry, elemental concentration, optical and local work function of the samples has been investigated using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, resonant Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, and X-ray diffraction methods. As-deposited amorphous thin films transformed to granular MoO2 and layeredlike α-MoO3 nanostructures after annealing at 600 °C for 30 min in the OPP of ≈2.1 × 10−9 Pa and ≈2.1 × 104 Pa, respectively. The optical bandgap and the local work function are increased from 2.60 eV to 3.22 eV and 5.12 eV to 5.76 eV, whereas the field emission turn-on field is decreased from 6.6 V/μm to 4.7 V/μm for 10 μA/cm2 with increasing OPP from ≈2.1 × 10−9 Pa to ≈2.1 × 104 Pa.