Synthesis and field-emission properties of the tungsten oxide nanowire arrays

High-density, uniformly distributed and quasi-aligned tungsten oxide nanowire arrays have been synthesized by a conventional thermal evaporation approach on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates without any catalysts. The temperature of the substrate was 450-550∘C. The tungsten oxide nanowires are single crystalline with growth direction of [0 1 0]. For commercial applications, field emission properties of tungsten oxide nanowires were studied under a poor vacuum at room temperature. The electron field-emission turn-on field (Eto), defined as the macroscopic field required to produce a current density of 10μA/cm2, is about 3.6V/μm. The performance reveals that the tungsten oxide nanowire arrays can be served as a good candidate for commercial application in field-emission displays.