Carbon coated Nb2O5 nanowires as enhanced field emitters

Nb2O5 nanowires with controllable carbon coating thickness were prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition. These hybrid nanowires were found to be efficient field emitters where the turn-on and threshold fields decreased with increasing carbon coating thickness. Notably, high current density was obtained from these hybrid nanowires (a maximum of ∼59 mA/cm2 at 11 V/μm) which was an order of magnitude higher than pristine Nb2O5 nanowires. The emission sites were distributed uniformly and current stability tests showed a stable emission current density with <10% current fluctuation for a period of 400 min.