Electron emission from individual indium arsenide semiconductor nanowires

A procedure was developed to mount individual semiconductor indium arsenide nanowires onto tungsten support tips to serve as electron field-emission sources. The electron emission properties of the single nanowires were precisely determined by measuring the emission pattern, current-voltage curve, and the energy spectrum of the emitted electron beam. The two investigated nanowires showed stable, Fowler-Nordheim-like emission behavior and a small energy spread. Their morphology was characterized afterward using transmission electron microscopy. The experimentally derived field enhancement factor corresponded to the one calculated using the basic structural information. The observed emission behavior contrasts the often unstable emission and large energy spread found for semiconductor emitters and supports the concept of Fermi-level pinning in indium arsenide nanowires. Indium arsenide nanowires may thus present a new type of semiconductor electron sources.