Inorganic semiconductor nanostructures and their field-emission applications

TLDR

Inorganic semiconductor nanostructures offer size‑ and dimensionality‑dependent properties that make them promising building blocks for future nanodevices and have attracted attention as field emitters because of their low work functions, high aspect ratios, mechanical stability, and excellent electrical and thermal conductivities. This review surveys current research on inorganic semiconductor nanostructures for field emission and outlines future directions. The authors survey ZnO, ZnS, Si, WO₃, AlN, SiC, and other inorganic semiconductors, describing their field‑emission principles and recent progress in emission characteristics.

Abstract

Inorganic semiconductor nanostructures are ideal systems for exploring a large number of novel phenomena at the nanoscale and investigating the size and dimensionality dependence of their properties for potential applications. The use of such nanostructures with tailored geometries as building blocks is also expected to play crucial roles in future nanodevices. Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes much attention has been paid to exploring the usage of inorganic semiconductor nanostructures as field-emitters due to their low work functions, high aspect ratios and mechanical stabilities, and high electrical and thermal conductivities. This article provides a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art research activities in the field. It mainly focuses on the most widely studied inorganic nanostructures, such as ZnO, ZnS, Si, WO3, AlN, SiC, and their field-emission properties. We begin with a survey of inorganic semiconductor nanostructures and the field-emission principle, and then discuss the recent progresses on several kinds of important nanostructures and their field-emission characteristics in detail and overview some additional inorganic semiconducting nanomaterials in short. Finally, we conclude this review with some perspectives and outlook on the future developments in this area.