title: Reliability enhancement of germanium nanowires using graphene as a protective layer: aspect of thermal stability.
abstract: We synthesized thermally stable graphene-covered Ge (Ge@G) nanowires and applied them in field emission devices. Vertically aligned Ge@G nanowires were prepared by sequential growth of the Ge nanowires and graphene shells in a single chamber. As a result of the thermal treatment experiments, Ge@G nanowires were much more stable than pure Ge nanowires, maintaining their shape at high temperatures up to 850 °C. In addition, field emission devices based on the Ge@G nanowires clearly exhibited enhanced thermal reliability. Moreover, field emission characteristics yielded the highest field enhancement factor (∼2298) yet reported for this type of device, and also had low turn-on voltage. Our proposed approach for the application of graphene as a protective layer for a semiconductor nanowire is an efficient way to enhance the thermal reliability of nanomaterials.
authors.affiliation: SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology, School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University , Suwon 440-746, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Soon-Hyung
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Shashikant P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Patole
authors.forename: Yamujin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Keun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heo
authors.forename: Won-Jae
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Joo
authors.forename: Ji-Beom
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Sung Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Dongmok
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Whang