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Enhanced field emission from pulsed laser deposited nanocrystalline ZnO thin films on Re and W

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Abstract

Nanocrystalline ZnO thin films have been deposited on rhenium and tungsten pointed and flat substrates by pulsed laser deposition method. An emission current of 1 nA with an onset voltage of 120 V was observed repeatedly and maximum current density ∼1.3 A/cm2 and 9.3 mA/cm2 has been drawn from ZnO/Re and ZnO/W pointed emitters at an applied voltage of 12.8 and 14 kV, respectively. In case of planar emitters (ZnO deposited on flat substrates), the onset field required to draw 1 nA emission current is observed to be 0.87 and 1.2 V/μm for ZnO/Re and ZnO/W planar emitters, respectively. The Fowler–Nordheim plots of both the emitters show nonlinear behaviour, typical for a semiconducting field emitter. The field enhancement factor β is estimated to be ∼2.15×105 cm−1 and 2.16×105 cm−1 for pointed and 3.2×104 and 1.74×104 for planar ZnO/Re and ZnO/W emitters, respectively. The high value of β factor suggests that the emission is from the nanometric features of the emitter surface. The emission current–time plots exhibit good stability of emission current over a period of more than three hours. The post field emission surface morphology studies show no significant deterioration of the emitter surface indicating that the ZnO thin film has a very strong adherence to both the substrates and exhibits a remarkable structural stability against high-field-induced mechanical stresses and ion bombardment. The results reveal that PLD offers unprecedented advantages in fabricating the ZnO field emitters for practical applications in field-emission-based electron sources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Advanced Studies in Material Science and Condensed Matter of Physics, Department of Physics, University of Pune, Pune, 411007, India

    Dattatray J. Late, Dilip S. Joag & Mahendra A. More

  2. Raja Ramnna Centre for Advanced Technology (CAT), Indore, 452013, India

    Pankaj Misra, B. N. Singh & Lalit M. Kukreja

Authors
  1. Dattatray J. Late
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  2. Pankaj Misra
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  3. B. N. Singh
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  4. Lalit M. Kukreja
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  5. Dilip S. Joag
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  6. Mahendra A. More
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Correspondence to Mahendra A. More.

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Late, D.J., Misra, P., Singh, B.N. et al. Enhanced field emission from pulsed laser deposited nanocrystalline ZnO thin films on Re and W. Appl. Phys. A 95, 613–620 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-008-4965-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-008-4965-5

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