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American Institute of Physics, Applied Physics Letters, 2(87), p. 023103

DOI: 10.1063/1.1991978

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Efficient field emission from α-Fe2O3 nanoflakes on an atomic force microscope tip

Journal article published in 2005 by Y. W. Zhu, T. Yu ORCID, C. H. Sow, Y. J. Liu, A. T. S. Wee, X. J. Xu, C. T. Lim, J. T. L. Thong
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

Aligned arrays of flake-shaped hematite (α-Fe2O3) nanostructure have been fabricated on an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip. They are created by simply heating an iron-coated AFM tip in ambience on a hot plate. These nanoflakes are characterized as α-Fe2O3 single crystalline structures with tip radii as small as several nanometers and are highly effective as electron field emitters. With a vacuum gap of about 150 μm, field emission measurements of α-Fe2O3 nanoflakes on AFM tips show a low turn-on voltage of about 400–600 V and a high current density of 1.6 A cm−2 under 900 V. Such high emission current density is attributed to the nanoscale sharp tips of the as-grown nanoflakes. Based on the Fowler–Nordheim theory, it is demonstrated the enhancement factor of α-Fe2O3 nanoflakes on AFM tips is comparable to that of carbon nanotubes. Our findings suggest that α-Fe2O3 nanoflakes are potentially useful as candidates for future electron field emission devices.