Self-catalytic growth and field-emission properties of Ga2O3 nanowires

Ga2O3 nanowires with very narrow width (∼30 nm) were fabricated from precursor gallium metal via a self-catalytic vapour-liquid-solid method using sol-gel derived Ga2O3 thin films as substrates. The morphological evolution of Ga2O3 nanostructures has been analysed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The field-emission (FE) properties of Ga2O3 nanowires are recorded and the turn-on field is found to be 1.88 V μm-1. It is shown from the I-t plot that the emission current remains nearly constant over 2 h at the pre-set current value of 1 μA. The average emission current at the stabilized value is seen to be fairly constant suggesting that the Ga2O3 nanowires are potentially important for applications in FE based devices.