Enhancement in field emission current density of Ni nanoparticles embedded in thin silica matrix by swift heavy ion irradiation

Journal Article · Wed May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4874435· OSTI ID:22273478

Sarker, Debalaya; Patra, Rajkumar; Srivastava, P.; Kumar, H. ^[1]; Kabiraj, D.; Avasthi, D. K. ^[2]; Vayalil, Sarathlal K.; Roth, S. V. ^[3]

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1. Nanostech Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016 (India)
2. Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi 110067 (India)
3. DESY, Petra III, Hamburg (Germany)

The field emission (FE) properties of nickel nanoparticles embedded in thin silica matrix irradiated with 100 MeV Au{sup +7} ions at various fluences are studied here. A large increase in FE current density is observed in the irradiated films as compared to their as deposited counterpart. The dependence of FE properties on irradiation fluence is correlated with surface roughness, density of states of valence band and size distribution of nanoparticles as examined with atomic force microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering. A current density as high as 0.48 mA/cm{sup 2} at an applied field 15 V/μm has been found for the first time for planar field emitters in the film irradiated with fluence of 5.0 × 10{sup 13} ions/cm{sup 2}. This significant enhancement in the current density is attributed to an optimized size distribution along with highest surface roughness of the same. This new member of field emission family meets most of the requirements of cold cathodes for vacuum micro/nanoelectronic devices.

• OSTI ID: 22273478
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 17; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CURRENT DENSITY
ENERGY-LEVEL DENSITY
FIELD EMISSION
GOLD IONS
IRRADIATION
MATRIX MATERIALS
NANOSTRUCTURES
NICKEL
PARTICLES
ROUGHNESS
SILICA
SMALL ANGLE SCATTERING
THIN FILMS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY