ZnO nanowires lateral field emission devices: Control on nanowire orientation and electron emission performance

ZnO nanowires (NWs) lateral field emission devices were fabricated. The NW-clusters were controlled to locally grow on the edges of the electrodes with different spread-angles. Devices with NWs in 0°~57° tilt-angles possess better field emission property. Typically, the device can operate at a bias of 477 V (anode-cathode gap: 50 μm) with emission current of 9.3 μA (current density: 6.22 A/cm
²
). Both experimental and numerical simulation results showed that the tilt-angle of the NW is crucial for field electron emission of the device. The work opens up possibilities on developing nanowire lateral field emission device for vacuum micro-electronics applications.