GaN Nanowire Field Emitters With the Adsorption of Au Nanoparticles

We report the adsorption of Au nanoparticles onto the surface of GaN nanowires (NWs) through photo-enhanced chemical reaction and the fabrication of GaN NW field emitters. With the adsorption of Au nanoparticles, it is found that threshold field and work function are reduced from 8.29 V/mm and 4.1 eV to 6.67 V/mm and 3.2 eV, respectively. These improvements could be attributed to the larger band distortion and more electrons accumulation so that more electrons could be emitted for the GaN NW field emitters with Au nanoparticles.