Enhancing Field Emission in Air via Ultrascaled Nanorod Electrodes.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39133099.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c01831.
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Abstract
Enhancing field emission in ultrascaled electronics improves the device performance and energy efficiency. Conventional lithography defines electrodes with a few-nanometer spacing on the cost of strengthened electron scattering and the reduced field enhancement factor, thus presenting challenges to enhance field emission at a small bias. Here, we used self-assembled nanorods with sub-5 nm spacing as electrodes to overcome these challenges. Intrinsic ballistic transport through high-crystallinity solution-synthesized nanorods minimized charge scattering; meanwhile ultrascaled anisotropic morphologies concentrated local electric fields and thereby lowered the barrier height. Enabled by these structural features, we demonstrated field emission density up to 4.1 × 10<sup>4</sup> A cm<sup>-2</sup> at 1 V in air, more than 10-fold higher than typical molecular and vacuum electronics at similar conditions, and constructed an air-operating electron source with an on/off ratio of 10<sup>5</sup> at the collector electrode. Energy-efficient high-conductance electron emission suggested the potential of using solution-synthesized nanomaterials in ultrascaled electronics.