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Tower-Like ZnO Nanorod Bundles Grown on Freestanding Diamond Wafers for Electron Field Emission Improvement

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Abstract

Tower-like ZnO nanorod (ZNR) bundles were grown on freestanding diamond (FSD) wafers by a low-temperature hydrothermal method without any catalysts, and the corresponding electron field emission property was investigated. The structural characterizations disclosed that these tower-like bundles were composed of single crystalline ZNRs with hexagonal wurtzite structure. They grew perpendicularly to each crystal planes of the diamond grains. Different hydrothermal reaction times (e.g., 1.5, 3, 6, 8 h) were carried out to investigate the morphology features of ZNRs grown on the growth surface of FSD wafers. The ZNR bundles with a growth time of 6 h showed the highest crystallinity and aspect ratio. Such ZNR bundles/FSD hybrid exhibited a high emission current density of 0.2 mA at an applied field of 11.8 V/μm and a reduced turn-on field of 6.8 V/μm. The field enhancement factor β was calculated to be ~4979 based on the Fowler-Nordheim theory. The geometry and structure of polycrystalline diamond were responsible for the formation of ZNR bundles and the high β-value.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (2018M640911), Science and Technology Major Project of Shanxi (Grant No. 20181102013), “1331 Project” Engineering Research Center of Shanxi (Grant No. PT201801).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Vacuum Electronics, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China

    Yanyan Shen, Yubin Gong, Jie Gao & Huarong Gong

  2. Institute of New Carbon Materials, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, People’s Republic of China

    Yanyan Shen, Shengwang Yu, Yuxin Jia, Hongjun Hei & Jie Gao

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  1. Yanyan Shen
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Shen, Y., Gong, Y., Yu, S. et al. Tower-Like ZnO Nanorod Bundles Grown on Freestanding Diamond Wafers for Electron Field Emission Improvement. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 29, 6078–6084 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-020-05059-3

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