Preparations and field emission properties of multilayer AlGaN nanofilm

Abstract

We report on the electron field emission (FE) from multi-layer AlGaN nanofilm grown by pulsed laser deposition, and the investigation of the multi-layer quantum structure effect on the field emission performance. The results show that the as-grown film has a good crystallinity, and the thickness values of GaN, AlN, and GaN film are 25 nm, 50 nm, and 25 nm, respectively. The FE measurement indicates that compared with single layer, the multilayer filmhas a low turn-on field and large threshold current. The turn-on filed is found to be 0.93 V/m, and the electric current density reaches to 30 mA/cm2 at 5.5 V/m. The improvement of the FE performance is attributed to resonant tunneling in the quantum well structure, and the accumulated electrons lower the effective surface barrier. The outstanding performance of multi-layer filed emission film should provide a feasible technical solution for large current and high power density thin film field emission device.