Bismuth triiodide sheet-assisted growth and enhanced field emission properties of cadmium sulfide nanowire array attached to a flexible CdS film

We report a bismuth triiodide (BiI3) sheet-assisted solution-phase procedure for the growth of long CdS nanowire arrays attached to flexible CdS films. The growth was dominated by the coordination between the deposition of CdS on BiI3 sheets and BiI3 decomposition. Electrical properties were measured by using a single CdS nanowire as a transport channel in a field-effect transistor. The arrays of nanowires were also characterized as electron field emitters. The conductive nanowires and the attached CdS film formed excellent connections between the vertical nanowire tips and the Si substrate. This enabled the nanowire array to generate a strong electron field emission with a high emission current density of 320 mA/cm(2) at the applied electric field of 14.21 V/mu m.