Liquid–Solid Process for Growing Gold Nanowires on an Indium Tin Oxide Substrate as Excellent Field Emitters

Gold nanowires are successfully grown on an ITO substrate by a liquid–solid process. An excellent field emission behavior of the nanowires, as indicated by the field enhancement factor (β) of up to 7585, indicates a significant decrease in energy barrier between the nanowires and the ITO substrate. A single Au nanowire demonstrates a strong emission current up to 800 nA at an applied voltage of 200 V. The outstanding reliability of the nanowires warrants their potential applications as effective electron field emitters and chemical and/or biological sensors in future microelectronics.