Enhanced field emission property of a novel Al2O3nanoparticle-decorated tubular SiC emitter with low turn-on and threshold field

Abstract

We report a novel Al₂O₃ nanoparticle-decorated tubular SiC nanostructure, which shows a remarkable enhanced field emission property with low turn-on and threshold field. The formation of Al₂O₃ nanoparticle-decorated tubular SiC on Si substrates is achieved in one-step via simple heating evaporation process for the first time. The nanostructure consists of tubular SiC and the Al₂O₃ nanoparticles, which homogeneously decorate on the surface of the tubular SiC with an average diameter of 7.8 nm and narrow diameter distribution. Moreover, compared with the same density and sized bare tubular SiC, the Al₂O₃ nanoparticle-decorated tubular SiC nanostructure has an obvious reduction in turn-on (from 8.8 to 2.4 V μm⁻¹) and threshold field (from 23.5 to 5.37 V μm⁻¹). The very low turn-on and threshold field is also comparable to that of carbon nanotubes, which indicates the Al₂O₃ nanoparticle-decorated tubular SiC is of huge potential application in future field emission display devices.