title: Synthesis and field emission properties of different ZnO nanostructure arrays.
abstract: In this article, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures of different shapes were fabricated on silicon substrate. Well-aligned and long ZnO nanowire (NW) arrays, as well as leaf-like ZnO nanostructures (which consist of modulated and single-phase structures), were fabricated by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method without the assistance of a catalyst. On the other hand, needle-like ZnO NW arrays were first fabricated with the CVD process followed by chemical etching of the NW arrays. The use of chemical etching provides a low-cost and convenient method of obtaining the needle-like arrays. In addition, the field emission properties of the different ZnO NW arrays were also investigated where some differences in the turn-on field and the field-enhancement factors were observed for the ZnO nanostructures of different lengths and shapes. It was experimentally observed that the leaf-like ZnO nanostructure is most suitable for field emission due to its lowest turn-on and threshold field as well as its high field-enhancement factor among the different synthesized nanostructures.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Physics and Center for Nanotechnology, University of Muenster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Str, 10, Muenster 48149, Germany. yong.lei@tu-ilmenau.de.
authors.forename: Yaoguo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Kin Mun
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lei