Patterned growth of ZnO semiconducting nanowires and its field emission properties

Abstract

We synthesized ZnO nanowires patterned on Si substrate and investigated the field emission properties of the nanowires. Firstly, Au catalyst layers were fabricated on Si substrate by photo-lithography and lift-off process. The diameter of Au pattern was 50 urn and the pattern was arrayed as 4×4. ZnO nanowires were grown on the Au catalyst pattern by the aid of Au liquid phase. The orientation of the ZnO nanowires was vertical on the whole. Sufficient brightness was obtained when the electric field was 5.4 V/um and the emission current was 5 m A/cm2 . The threshold electric field was 5.4 V/μm in the 4×4 array of ZnO nanowires, which is quite lower than that of the nanowires grown on the flat Si substrate. The lower threshold electric field of the patterned ZnO nanowires could be attributed to their vertical orientation of the ZnO nanowires.