Growth and field emission properties of GaN nanopencils

Abstract Novel gallium nitride (GaN) nanopencils have been synthesized on a silicon substrate by Ga 2 O 3 with ammonia via the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The observed morphology of GaN nanopencils is divided into two parts: the bottom is a nanowire with large diameter; the top is a nanowire with small diameter; the diameter of nanopencils decreases gradually from ~600 nm to ~200 nm along the wire axis. The formation mechanism of GaN nanopencils is a vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) mechanism. Field emission measurements show that GaN nanopencils film has high stability with a lower turn-on field of 3.5 V/µm, which is sufficient for application in field emission flat panel displays and cold electron sources in display devices. Moreover, the synthesized GaN nanopencils will facilitate flexible design of device architectures for nanoelectronics.