Temperature-dependent field emission of flexible n-type silicon carbide nanoneedle emitters

In this work, we reported the temperature-dependent field emission (FE) of flexible n-type SiC nanoneedles grown on the carbon fabric substrates via pyrolysis of polymeric precursor. The obtained n-type SiC nanoneedles with clear and sharp tips were incorporated by N dopants with a uniform spatial distribution. The FE behaviors of n-type SiC nanoneedles exhibit a strong dependence on the temperatures. Their turn-on fields and threshold fields decrease from 1.37 to 0.67 V/mu m and 1.87 to 0.96 V/mu m with the temperature raised from room temperature (RT) to 400 degrees C, respectively. The measured current emission stabilities of the n-type SiC nanoneedles under RT and 200 degrees C are similar to 7.7% and 14.1%, respectively. The temperature-dependent FE characteristics could be attributed to the reduction of the work function of n-type SiC nanoneedles induced by the raise of temperatures and the incorporated N dopants. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.