Vertically aligned self-assembled gold nanorods as low turn-on, stable field emitters

Abstract In this work we have investigated field emission from self-assembled, vertically aligned, gold nanorod arrays, which were synthesized via a colloidal growth method. A field emission current density of ∼1 mA/cm2 was measured for these gold nanorod arrays using an anode-cathode separation of ∼3.5 mm. The field emission investigation of these gold nanorod arrays was carried out at a base pressure of ∼10−8 mbar. The turn on field, defined as the electric field required to obtain a current density of 1 μA/cm2, is observed to be 1.9 V/μm. Assuming a work function value of 5.3 eV, the field enhancement factor β is estimated to be ∼2931, which is higher than the reported values for other gold nanostructures/arrays.