Effect of CO on the field emission properties of zinc oxide

Zinc oxide is a wide band gap semiconductor (WBGS). Its band bending, which usually favors field emission by lowering surface barrier and bringing more electrons to the bottom of conduction band, can be quite dramatic under high field. In the last few years, different kinds of ZnO nano-materials has been synthesized and applied as the cathode materials for field emission. For better application of ZnO in commercial field emission devices, long-term current stability is one of the most important aspects to be ensured. So in this paper, the field emission behavior of screen printing tetrapod ZnO will be studied by exposing to CO, which is the main residual gas in sealed tetrapod ZnO (T-ZnO) field emission device.