High Current Density Electron Emission from an Electrodeposited Metal Nanowire Array

High-current electron field emitters are of interest for many applications, but state-of-the-art devices suffer from limitations such as high turn-on macroscopic field, low macroscopic current density, poor emission stability, and short lifetime. Field emitter arrays with a high spatial density of uniform emitters have the potential to address these problems. This work presents the process development, fabrication, and testing of a novel field emitter array. The authors employed electron beam lithography and templated electrodeposition to fabricate a high spatial density array of metallic nanowires, resulting in electron emission with high macroscopic current density (2 A/cm2) and low turn-on macroscopic field (4.35 V/μm). Templated electrodeposition of metallic nanowire arrays is a promising method for producing high performance field emitters.