Efficient field emission characteristics from a planar-gate surface-conduction electron source with ZnO emitters

A planar-gate surface-conduction electron source with ZnO nanorods has been successfully fabricated, where ZnO nanorods deposited on the cathode are used as field emission emitters and ZnO nanorods deposited in the gap between cathode and gate electrode (C-G gap) are used as surface-conduction emitters. Field emission investigations indicate that the turn-on voltage at emission current of 10 μA is approximately 85 V. The emission current and conduction current reach to 520 V and 450 V at the gate voltage and anode voltage of 140 V and 2000 V, respectively. High electron emission efficiency (56.2%) is obtained at low gate voltage of 140 V. The maximum brightness can reach 1200 cd/m2 and the emission current fluctuation is smaller than 5% for 6 h. These results indicate that the electron source based on the planar-gate surface-conduction triode with ZnO emitters has efficient field emission characteristics.