Structural effects of field emission from GaN nanofilms on SiC substrates

Journal Article · Mon Apr 21 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4871539· OSTI ID:22273557

Chen, Cheng-Cheng; Wang, Ru-Zhi; Zhu, Man-Kang; Yan, Hui ^[1]; Liu, Peng ^[2]; Wang, Bi-Ben ^[3]

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1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, 100 Pingleyuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100124 (China)
2. Department of Physics Tsinghua University, Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Beijing 100084 (China)
3. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing 400054 (China)

GaN nanofilms (NFs) with different structures are grown on SiC substrates by pulsed laser deposition under different conditions. The synthesized GaN NFs are studied by X-ray diffraction, field-emission (FE) scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The GaN NFs are composed of diversified GaN nanoparticles with a diameter of 9–38 nm, thickness of 10–50 nm, and roughness of 0.22–13.03 nm. FE from the GaN NFs is structure dependent, which is explained by stress changing the band gap of the NFs. By structure modulation, the turn-on field of GaN NFs can be as low as 0.66 V/μm at a current density of 1 μA/cm{sup 2}, with a current density of up to 1.1 mA/cm{sup 2} at a field of 4.18 V/μm. Fowler-Nordheim curves of some samples contain multiple straight lines, which originate from the structural change and diversification of GaN nanoparticles under an applied field. Overall, our results suggest that GaN NFs with excellent FE properties can be prepared on SiC substrates, which provides a new route to fabricate high-efficiency FE nanodevices.

• OSTI ID: 22273557
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 15; 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
CURRENT DENSITY
ENERGY BEAM DEPOSITION
FIELD EMISSION
GALLIUM NITRIDES
LASER RADIATION
NANOSTRUCTURES
PARTICLES
PULSED IRRADIATION
ROUGHNESS
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SILICON CARBIDES
STRESSES
SUBSTRATES
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY