Field emission properties of gold nanowire cathodes based on polymer ion-track membranes

Abstract

Field emission (FE) properties of randomly distributed free-standing Au nanowires (NW) were measured using thin metallic cathodes of about 50 mm2 in size with about 107 NW/cm2. The NW of diameter 120-260 nm and length 5-15 mum were electrochemically grown in cylindrical pores of etched ion-track polycarbonate membranes. The FE properties of the Au NW were investigated by local FESM measurements with a lateral resolution of about 10 mum. These observations might reflect enhanced heating effects of longer and sharper NW and successive destruction of single nanowires in agglomerated clusters, which is also evident from I-V curves with multiple destruction branches appearing mainly for longer NW.