AlN nanorod and nanoneedle arrays prepared by chloride assisted chemical vapor deposition for field emission applications

Abstract

Hexagonal AlN nanorod and nanoneedle arrays were synthesized through the direct reaction of AlCl(3) and NH(3) by chemical vapor deposition at about 750 °C. Both the AlN nanoneedle and nanorod samples were of wurtzite structure and grew preferentially along the c-axis. With an increase in the ratio of NH(3) to Ar, an evolution from nanorods to nanoneedles was observed. A growth model was proposed to explain the possible growth mechanism. Measurements in field emission show that AlN nanoneedle arrays have a much lower turn-on field (3.1 V µm(-1)) compared to nanorod arrays (15.3 V µm(-1)), due to their large curvature geometry. The AlN nanoneedle arrays have potential applications in many fields, such as electron-emitting nanodevices and field-emission-based flat-panel displays.

Catalyst-free synthesis, morphology evolution and optical property of one-dimensional aluminum nitride nanostructure arrays

“…As an important wide-gap semiconductor, aluminum nitride can be applied in a variety of optoelectronic devices and field emission (FE) devices because of its special physical properties, such as high thermal conductivity, high piezoelectric response, low dielectric loss, excellent mechanical strength and chemical stability [4][5][6]. Recently, researchers have reported some AlN nanostructures including nanowires [7][8][9], nanotubes [10,11], nanospheres [12,13], nanobelts [14], nanocones [15], nanotips [16], nanorods [17][18][19] and hierarchical nanostructures [20][21][22]. More recently, several novel approaches have been developed to synthesize AlN nanostructures and some interesting results have been reported.…”

Plasma‐Assisted Approaches in Inorganic Nanostructure Fabrication

“…[129][130][131][132] The nitrides of aluminum and iron can be prepared using the trivalent metal halides and NH 3 as another reactant. [133][134][135][136] For PECVD processes, Ge nanoparticles are produced through the reaction of GeCl 4 and H 2 . [123,124] The chloride/hydrogen/nitrogen systems have been proven to be effective for a number of nitride preparations, including BN, [137] TiN, [138,139] and FeN.…”

The Effects of Growth Temperature on the Field‐Emission Properties of ZnO Nanoneedle Arrays

“…This is comparable with those of ZnO nanotowers (3.6 V/ mm, 2700), 37 NiSi nanowires (4.7 V/mm, 2200), 38 vertically aligned carbon composite nanostructures (5 V/mm, 2000), 39 and AlN NNAs (3.1 V/mm, 1413). 40 It is evident from Fig. 5 that by changing the growth temperature, significant change occurs in field enhancement factor.…”

“…For the sample under investigation, the estimated β value was 3588. This is comparable with those of ZnO nanotowers (3.6 V/μm, 2700), 37 NiSi nanowires (4.7 V/μm, 2200), 38 vertically aligned carbon composite nanostructures (5 V/μm, 2000), 39 and AlN NNAs (3.1 V/μm, 1413) 40 . It is evident from Fig.…”