Synthesis and field-emission properties of the tungsten oxide nanowire arrays

High-density, uniformly distributed and quasi-aligned tungsten oxide nanowire arrays have been synthesized by a conventional thermal evaporation approach on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates without any catalysts. The temperature of the substrate was 450 - 550 degrees C. The tungsten oxide nanowires are single crystalline with growth direction of [0 10]. For commercial applications, field emission properties of tungsten oxide nanowires were studied under a poor vacuum at room temperature. The electron field-emission turn-on field (E-to), defined as the macroscopic field required to produce a current density of 10 mu A/cm(2), is about 3.6V/mu m. The performance reveals that the tungsten oxide nanowire arrays can be served as a good candidate for commercial application in field-emission displays. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.