Study on field-emission characteristics of electrodeposited Co-doped ZnO thin films

Co-doped ZnO films were fabricated using electrodeposition method on the ITO substrates. The structure of the Co-doped ZnO films was analyzed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope. The field-emission characteristics of the prepared Co-doped ZnO films were examined using diode structure in a vacuum chamber. The examined results indicate that the Co-doping cause the turn-on field increasing by increasing the concentration of the Co-dopant, probably due to the band gap changing, which could attributed to the sp–d exchange interactions between the band electrons and the localized d electrons of the Co2+ ions substituting Zn ions in the films.