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Field emission properties of amorphous GaN ultrathin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

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Abstract

Amorphous gallium nitride (a-GaN) films with thicknesses of 5 and 300 nm are deposited on n-Si (100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), and their field emission (FE) properties are studied. It shows that compared with thicker (300 nm) a-GaN film, better FE performance is obtained on ultrathin (5 nm) a-GaN film with a threshold field of 0.78 V/µm, which is the lowest value ever reported. Furthermore, the current density reaches 42 mA/cm2 when the applied field is 3.72 V/µm. These experimental results unambiguously confirm Binh’s theoretical analysis (Binh et al. Phys Rev Lett, 2000, 85(4): 864–867) that the FE performance would be prominently enhanced with the coating of an ultra-thin wide band-gap semiconductor film.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Thin Film, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    FengYing Wang, RuZhi Wang, Wei Zhao, XueMei Song, Bo Wang & Hui Yan

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  1. FengYing Wang
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  2. RuZhi Wang
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  3. Wei Zhao
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  4. XueMei Song
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  5. Bo Wang
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  6. Hui Yan
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Correspondence to RuZhi Wang.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10604001), and the Beijing Nora Program (Grant No. 2008B10)

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Wang, F., Wang, R., Zhao, W. et al. Field emission properties of amorphous GaN ultrathin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition. Sci. China Ser. F-Inf. Sci. 52, 1947–1952 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-009-0162-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-009-0162-1

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