InN nanotips as excellent field emitters

Abstract

Unidirectional single crystalline InN nanoemitters were fabricated on the silicon (111) substrate via ion etching. These InN nanoemitters showed excellent field emission properties with the threshold field as low as 0.9 V/mu m based on the criterion of 1 mu A/cm(2) field emission current density. This superior property is ascribed to the double enhancement of (1) the geometrical factor of the InN nanostructures and (2) the inherently high carrier concentration of the degenerate InN semiconductor with surface electron accumulation layer induced downward band bending effect that significantly reduced the effective electron tunneling barrier even under very low external field. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.