In situ field emission measurement and field emission enhancement of few-layer graphene decorated with Au nanoparticles

We demonstrate the potential for integrating field emitters with two-dimensional (2D) graphene for directly transferred vacuum nanoelectronics. Improved field emission (FE) properties were revealed with few-layer grapheme (FLG) decorated with gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). In situ field emission measurement on local graphene film was applied, achieving a maximum current density of 37.8 mA/cm². Grapehen-Au NPs nanocomposite retains the turn-on electric field of 3.84 V/μm which is much lower than the pristine graphene, and the emission has been proved to be very stable. With graphene directly transferred onto the pre-prepared structure, we demonstrate the possibility of improving the efficiency of manufacturing large scale nano-devices with high-precision integration.