Patterned growth and field emission properties of ZnO nanowires prepared by thermal oxidation method

Recently, one-dimensional field emitters have been extensively studied for potential applications application in vacuum microelectronic devices, e.g. field emission display (FED). Many researchers have reported that ZnO nanowires have good field emission properties which meet the requirement of FED [1, 2]. However, preparation under moderate temperature is essential for FED application because usually glass substrates are used in such devices. Locally growth is also demanded. Thermal oxidation is an approach by which ZnO nanowires can be prepared under relatively low temperature [3]. Patterned growth by this method has not been reported yet. In this study, patterned ZnO nanowires prepared from Zn thin film by thermal oxidation were achieved and their field emission properties were studied.