The influence of surface topography on the field emission of nanostructured copper oxide thin films grown by oblique incidence deposition

Abstract

We report the surface morphology dependent enhanced field electron emission properties of copper oxide thin films, which are sputter deposited at two different incidence angles. The turn-on field is as low as 1.3 V µm -1 for obliquely deposited thin film, with an enhancement factor of ~ 5144. The emission current also shows good stability. With the help of finite element method analysis, we show that the enhanced field emission behaviour is due to the special surface topography of obliquely deposited film. While for the normally deposited film screening effect plays important role and thereby condemning the electron emission performance. We expect to have a general applicability of this study in the design of thin film based electron emitters.Recently Das et al., reported lowest turn-on field value of 0.9 V µm -1 for cupric oxide (CuO) nanoknife arrays. 22 On the other hand Deo et al., reported field emission property of Cu 2 O/ZnO hetero-nanobrush and found the turn-on field to be 6.5 V µm -1 (at a current density of 10µA cm -2 ). 23 Shi et al., reported that Surface morphology dependent field electron emission characteristic of copper oxide thin films shows superior field emission of obliquely sputter deposited thin film (turnon field ~ 1.3 V µm -1 ) than normally deposited film.

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Efficient Degradation of Endocrine Disruptors Using 1D and 3D Copper (I) Oxide Nanostructures

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Ion Beam-Mediated Defect Engineering in TiOx Thin Films for Controlled Resistive Switching Property and Application

“…It is observed that following implantation the film remains granular in nature, albeit the RMS roughness as well as the average grain size increases with fluence (see Figure D). Besides film morphology, the nature of the crystallinity also plays an important role in determining the electrical properties of a thin film , and hence, XRD measurements of as-grown and implanted TiO x films are carried out (Figure E) which reveal their amorphous nature. In addition, the influence of implantation on the optical and electrical properties of TiO x layers are studied.…”