Enhancing field emission performance of aligned Si nanowires via in situ partial oxidization

Partially oxidized Si nanowire (NW) arrays have been achieved via a combinatorial process of selectively etching Si wafer to obtain vertically aligned single crystalline Si NW arrays and subsequent in situ partially oxidizing the as-etched bare Si NWs. The resultant Si products are Si-SiOx nanocable-like structures consisting of single-crystalline Si NW inner cores and outer shells of insulating SiOx. Field emission measurements demonstrate that surface partial oxidization enhances the field emission current of the as-etched bare Si NWs effectively, which can be ascribed to the outer shell of insulating SiOx that has small electron affinity (0.6-0.8 eV) and can protect Si NW inner cores. The results indicate that the partially oxidized Si NW arrays would act as the excellent field emitters in the future vacuum micro- and nano-electronic devices.