Characteristics of Field-Emission Emitters Based On Graphene Decorated ZnO Nanostructures

This paper investigated that the preparation of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod (NR) and ZnO NR with graphene material was successfully prepared and explored. The ZnO NRs without and with decorated graphene are also called ZO and ZO-G field-emission (FE) emitters. Besides, the material properties of fabricated ZO and ZO-G NR arrays were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrometer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), Raman spectrometer, and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM) with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrometer. It was observed that all NRs exhibited the single crystal performance and were uniformly grown on the surface of seed layer. Simultaneously, the samples were victoriously decorated by graphene on the NR surface. As a result, decorating with graphene reduced turn-on field from 6.06 to 4.12 V/mu m. The effective field enhancement factors of the ZO and ZO-G NRs estimated from the slopes of the Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) plot were approximately 3682 and 7462. Additionally, the UV light treatment can also enhance FE characteristics. The results indicated that these emitters will be useful in FE applications.

Automated summary

This study successfully prepared ZnO nanorods and ZnO nanorods with graphene material, and found that decorating with graphene can reduce turn-on field and effectively enhance field enhancement factors. UV light treatment can also enhance FE characteristics, indicating the potential application prospects of these emitters in FE applications.