Stable field emission from cone-shaped SnO2 nanorod arrays

Uniformly distributed and quasi-aligned cone-shaped SnO2 nanorod arrays have been synthesized by a conventional thermal evaporation approach on a common stainless steel mesh substrates without any catalysts. Field emission (FE) measurements show that its turn-on field is about 2.1 V/mu m, which is comparable to that of carbon nanotubes, and the fluctuation of FE currents is as small as 5% for 6 h. The low turn-on field and good stability indicate that it is a promising candidate for FE application. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.