Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Field emission characteristics were investigated for zinc oxide nanostructures which were grown on NiO catalyzed silicon (100) substrate by chemical vapor deposition method. The asgrown zinc oxide showed needle-shaped nanostructures with tip diameters of 20∼40 nm and length of 3∼5 νm. The turn-on field was found to be about 6 V/νm at a current density of 1 νA/cm2. After several field emission measurements, the turn-on field was increased up to 8.5 V/νm and the magnitude of field enhancement factor was decreased from 1190 to 940. According to SEM, the tip diameter increase of the zinc oxide to 60 nm was observed after several emission measurements. Therefore, degradation of the field emission characteristic after measurements is attributed to this deformation of the tip shape.