Site-specific growth to control ZnO nanorods density and related field emission properties

Uniformly distributed ZnO nanorods with two different densities were demonstrated using the standard submicron semiconductor process. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and UV-lithography were used to predefine growth sites and to grow ZnO nanorods at 600 °C. Integrated and local field emission (FE) experiments were also performed in the same substrate, and both involved the F–N vacuum tunneling mechanism. A medium density of high aspect ratio nanorods shows better FE performance due to the screening effect. The ability to control the growth-site demonstrated the possibility of the integration and the better field emission properties of nanodevices by ZnO on silicon substrate.