1110
6, NOVEMBER 2012
Field Emission of ZnO Nanowires in Low
Vacuum Following Various Enhancements
Made by Exposure to UV
Cheng-Liang Hsu and Yao-Ching Tsai
AbstractHigh-density vertical ZnO nanowires (NWs) were
synthesized by vapor phase transport deposition without a metal
catalyst or template. The work function of ZnO NWs was re-
duced to 3.7 eV by exposure to UV. At a low vacuum of 10 3 Torr,
the UV light improved the field emission performance and
reduced the turn-on voltage such that they were better than those
of nor-mal field emission in a high vacuum. The depletion layer
of NWs disappeared because surface O2 oxygen molecules were
removed by exposure to UV light. The enhancement by UV
remained even after the UV light had been turned off for 20 min.
Index TermsEnhance, field emission (FE), low vacuum,
ultra-violet (UV), ZnO nanowires (NWs).
I. INTRODUCTION
ANOSTRUCTURE materials have very favorable physi-
N cal and chemical properties because of their large surface-
to-volume ratio. In the past decade, nanostructure materials have
been extensively adopted for fabricating nano-sized photoelec-
tric and electronic devices, such as UV nanolasers [1], field-effect
transistors [2], solar cells [3], gas sensors [4], UV pho-todetectors
[5], light-emitting diodes [6], nanogenerators, and field emission
(FE) devices [7], [8]. The most well-known (1-D) emitter
cathodes of FE are carbon nanotubes [9], but emitters of metallic
and semiconductor nanostructure materials have been
investigated in recent years [8][10], owing to their lower elec-
tron affinity and ease of synthesis. Among available nanostruc-
ture materials, ZnO is an n-type material with a large exciton
binding energy of 60 meV and a wide direct bandgap energy of
3.37 eV at room temperature. ZnO nanowires (NWs) can be
synthesized by various methods, including chemical vapor de-
position [8][11], template-assisted growth [12], catalyst-driven
molecular beam epitaxy [13], metalorganic chemical vapor de-
position [14], vaporliquidsolid [2], [15], sol-gel synthesis, and
hydrothermal methods [16], [17]. ZnO NWs have been consid-
ered to be promising cold cathodes for FE because they have
Manuscript received April 21, 2012; accepted August 7, 2012. Date of pub-
lication August 10, 2012; date of current version November 16, 2012. This
work was supported by the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan under
Contract NSC 101-2221-E-024-016. The review of this paper was arranged
by Associate Editor G. Ramanath.
C.-L. Hsu is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National
Univer-sity of Tainan, Tainan 700, Taiwan (e-mail: clhsu@mail.nutn.edu.tw).
Y.-C. Tsai was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Uni-
versity of Tainan, Tainan 700, Taiwan. He is now with Advanced Semiconductor
Engineering, Inc., Kaohsiung 811, Taiwan (e-mail: luckygd77@hotmail.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TNANO.2012.2212913
1536-125X/$31.00 2012 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NANOTECHNOLOGY, VOL. 11, NO.
a high aspect ratio, low work function, and excellent thermal
stability. Many articles have reported enhancements of FE from
ZnO NWs, as in increased negative electron affinity [18], in-
creased conductivity of emission [19], the reduced screening ef-
fect of ZnO nanostructures [20], or reduced work function [21].
Most relevant investigations focus on controlling morphology
and doping technology [21]. The morphology of ZnO NWs is
composed of ultralong wires or sharp tips, which increase the en-
hancement factor [18][20]. ZnO nanostructures were doped
using elements Al, Ga, and In [21], [22]. ZnO is well known as a
natural n-type material. The work function ( = Eva c EF ) of
pure ZnO NWs is 5.3 eV. Doping ZnO strengthens its n-type
characteristic and shifts EF toward the conduction band EC . The
increase in the EF value upon doping reduces the work function
. The field emission displays (FEDs) are operated in a high
6
vacuum (10 Torr), which is vacuum-sealed in a frame
package. The vacuum of FED package decays slowly because the
materials are porous and the glue-pasting degrades. A few studies
have discussed the FE property in low vacuum [23]. In this
investigation, vertical ZnO NWs were synthesized on
ZnO:Ga/glass substrate without a catalyst. The FE of ZnO NWs
3
was measured at low vacuum (10 Torr). At the low vacuum,
the FE is measured in dark region and under various wavelengths
of UV light. The results concerning FE in a low vacuum are dis-
cussed. The optical and electrical mechanisms of the fabricated
FE device are also elucidated.
II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
Before ZnO NWs were synthesized, Ga-doped ZnO films with
a thickness of approximately 50 nm were deposited by reac-tive
magnetron sputtering on glass substrates (Corning1737). X-ray
diffraction (XRD) measurements demonstrated that the sput-tered
ZnO:Ga film was preferentially oriented in the (002) direc-tion. A
four-point probe resistivity measurement indicated that the sheet
resistance of the ZnO:Ga film was around 186 /sq. ZnO NWs
were synthesized by vapor phase transport deposi-tion without a
metal catalyst or template. The source of zinc vapor was Zn metal
powder with a purity of 99.9%, which was purchased from Strem
Chemicals. The ZnO:Ga/glass substrate and zinc metal powder
were placed on an alumina boat. The distance between the zinc
powder and the substrate was main-tained at 20 mm, with the
zinc powder placed upstream of the boat. The boat was inserted
into a horizontal tube furnace to grow the ZnO NWs. Notably, the
positions of the patterned ZnO:Ga/glass substrate, zinc vapor
source, and alumina boat
HSU AND TSAI: FIELD EMISSION OF ZnO NANOWIRES IN LOW VACUUM FOLLOWING VARIOUS ENHANCEMENTS
Fig. 1. Configuration for making FE measurements.
were carefully controlled so that they were located at the same
horizontal level and were heated at the same temperature. Argon
and oxygen gases were introduced into a thermal furnace system
as the NWs grew therein. The Ar flow rate was maintained at
54.4 sccm, while the O2 flow rate was maintained at 0.8 sccm. A
mechanical pump was then utilized to evacuate the system and a
programmable temperature controller was used to control the
furnace temperature with an accuracy of 1 C. Meanwhile, the
reaction temperature, total growth time, and pressure inside the
tube furnace were 580 C, 60 min, and 10 Torr, respectively.
The morphologies and size distribution of the as-grown ZnO
NW were characterized using a field-emission scanning elec-tron
microscope (FESEM) (JSM-7000F), which was operated at 10
keV. The crystallographic and structural properties of the as-
grown ZnO NWs were then determined using a MAC MXP18 X-
ray diffractometer. The FE characteristics of ZnO NWs in the
dark region were compared with those of ZnO NWs that were
illuminated by UV. Fig. 1 schematically depicts the configura-
tion for making the FE measurements, which suggested that the
emission current was generated by the tunneling of electrons
from the tip of the ZnO NW. The FE properties of these ZnO
NWs at room temperature in a vacuum chamber at a pressure of
6 3
10 Torr or 10 Torr were also investigated. During FE mea-
surements, the anode was a tungsten probe with a diameter of 1.8
mm, while the interelectrode distance d between the anode and
the ZnO NWs was precisely maintained at 100 m. The
wavelengths of the light from the UV-A and UV-B are defini-tion
in 320400 nm and 280320 nm, respectively. The lamp was
placed above the glass substrate as an excitation source for the
ZnO NWs. The distance between the UV lamp and the substrate
was maintained at 1 cm. The currentvoltage (I V )
characteristics were determined using a Keithley 237 source and
measuring unit, which measured in femtometers and provided a
maximum voltage of 1100 V. The FE properties were extracted
from the obtained I V curves using the FowlerNordheim (FN)
model.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 2 presents the cross-sectional FESEM image of the ZnO
NWs that were grown at 580 C. Clearly, high-density verti-cal
ZnO NWs with uniform diameter and uniform length were grown
on ZnO:Ga/glass substrates. As shown in Fig. 2, the av-erage
length and diameter of the ZnO NWs were approximately 3.5 m
and 120 nm, respectively. The tips of the ZnO NWs were around
20 nm in diameter and had a sharp morphology, enhanc-
1111
Fig. 2. FESEM image of cross-sectional sample of ZnO NWs grown on
ZnO/glass. (Left) XRD profiles of ZnO NWs. (Right) PL emission spectra
obtained by excitation at e x c = 254 nm.
ing their FE property. The left inset in Fig. 2 displays the XRD
spectrum of a sample. Only one strong ZnO (002) XRD peak
with a small linewidth was observed. This result demonstrates
that these ZnO NWs were well oriented with a pure wurtzite
structure. The right inset in Fig. 2 shows room-temperature
photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the ZnO NWs that were
grown on a ZnO:Ga/glass substrate. Clearly, all of the PL
spectra exhibit a strong peak located at about 380 nm with a
long tail in the long wavelength region. The strong PL peak is
attributable to the recombination of free excitons through the
excitonexciton collision process [24]. Deep emissions
(greenyellow bands) are also observed as long tails. Deep
level emissions have been suggested to be related to the singly
ionized oxygen vacancies in ZnO [25].
Fig. 3(a) plots the emission currentvoltage characteristics of
ZnO NWs, which were measured in the dark and in UV light of
2
various wavelengths. The inset presents FN plots of ln(J /V )
against (1/V ). The energy of the photons of UV-A (around 365
nm) and UV-B (around 310 nm) fluorescent tubes exceeds the
energy of the ZnO bandgap, which is 3.37 eV. The conductivity
of ZnO increased upon exposure to UV light ow-ing to the
formation of an electronhole pair. UV light evidently reduced
the FE turn-on voltage. The intensities of UV-A and UV-B light
2
were approximately 4.2 and 2.1 mW/cm , respec-tively. Owing
to the UV-A FE property, the lowest turn-on volt-age was 240 V,
equivalent to an electric field of 2.4 V/m since the distance
between was 100 m. In the UV-B light and dark regions, the
threshold fields were higher, 4.2 and 6.4 V/m, respectively
suggesting that the light intensity dominated FE performance.
The power consumed by the UV-A and UV-B flu-orescent lamps
matched their specifications, but the intensity of the UV-B
photons was lower than that of the UV-A photons because their
electrical transfer efficiency was lower. The three FE curves are
described by the FN equation
J= 2 3/2
aV bd
exp
2 2
d V
1112 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NANOTECHNOLOGY, VOL. 11, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2012

denotes the work function of ZnO NWs (eV). To investigate fur-

Fig. 3. (a) FE properties of ZnO NWs measured in the dark and under UV
2
light of various wavelengths. (Inset) FN plots of ln(J /V ) as a function of
(1/V ). (b) FE properties of ZnO NWs measured in the dark and under UV-A
light in high and low vacuums. (Inset) FN plots. (c) Emission current in UV-B
light and dark at various pressures. (Inset) FN plots.
2 A light had been turned off for more than 25 min, the FE
where J denotes the current density (A/m ); V denotes the ap-
plied voltage (V); denotes the field enhancement factor; a =
1 0 2 9 3/ 2
1.56 10 (A eV/V ); b = 6.83 10 (V/m eV ), and
2
ther the FE behavior of these two different ZnO NWs, ln(I /V )
was replotted as a function of 1/V, in the FN plot in the inset of
Fig. 3(a). It exhibits three negative linear regions within the
measured range. The change in the slope of the FN plot reveals
that the local electric field at the top of these NWs may not in-
crease linearly with the applied voltage. Knowing that the work
function of the pure ZnO NWs was 5.3 eV indicates that the
field enhancement factor in the dark, in UV-A and in UV-B,
should be approximately 1198, 5420, and 3233, respectively. The
sample of ZnO NWs is the same; its surface morphology should
be the same. The field enhancement factor of ZnO NWs was
also assumed to be equal to that in the dark region, 1198. Based
on this assumption, the work functions for UV-A and UV-B
should be reduced to 3.7 and 4.2 eV, respectively.
To examine the characteristics of the emission current at vari-
ous pressures, two values of pressure were utilized in the exper-
iments. To maintain a high vacuum, a turbo pump was used to
6
maintain a pressure in the chamber of about 10 Torr. When the
3
turbo pump was turned off, the pressure increased to 10 Torr.
The FE of UV-A light was measured at various pressures, and
plotted in Fig. 3(b). The inset presents FN plots. In the dark
6
region, the high vacuum (10 Torr) yielded a better turn-on
3
voltage, 570 V, than did the low vacuum (10 Torr), 650 V.
Under the same sample exposed to UV-A light, the high vac-uum
yielded the lowest turn-on voltage, 240 V, and the low vac-uum
yielded a turn-on voltage of 330 V. These results show that the
UV-A light improved the FE performance and dominated it. Fig.
3(c) plots the FE properties of ZnO NWs in the dark and un-der
UV-B light at high and low vacuums. The inset displays FN plots.
The relationships among FE, duration of exposure to UV-B light,
and the vacuum pressure are similar to that in Fig. 3(b). The
lowest turn-on voltage, 420 V (equivalent to an electric field of
4.2 V/m) in Fig. 3(c) was measured under UV-B light at a high
vacuum. Therefore, UV-A and UV-B light yielded better FE
properties in a high vacuum than in a low vacuum.
To investigate the FE properties after the UV light was turned
off, Fig. 4(a) presents the emissions that were measured in the
dark and under UV-A light at a low vacuum (10 3 Torr), and after
the UV-A light had been turned off. After the UV-A light had
been turned off for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 min, the measured
turn-on voltage of the FE was 420, 450, 460, 560, 615, and 660
V, respectively. The FE performance became worse as the time
after the UV-A light was turned off increased, but the FE turn-on
voltages when the UV-A light had been off for 520 min were
still lower than those measured in the dark. The conditions under
which the measurements in Fig. 4(b) were made were the same as
those under which the measurements in Fig. 4(a) were made,
except that a high vacuum (105 Torr) was maintained in the
chamber. The measured turn-on voltages of FE after the UV-A
light had been turned off for 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 min were 330,
350, 460, 590, and 650 V, respectively. When the UV-A light had
been turned off for 515 min, the FE performance was still
better than in the dark (in which it was 550 V). When the UV-
properties were worse than in the dark, regardless of
whether the vacuum was high or low.
HSU AND TSAI: FIELD EMISSION OF ZnO NANOWIRES IN LOW VACUUM FOLLOWING VARIOUS ENHANCEMENTS
Fig. 4. (a) FE measured in low vacuum after UV-A light is turned off. (b) FE
measured in high vacuum after UV-A light is turned off.
Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows under UV-B light in a low vacuum
3 5
(10 Torr) and a high vacuum (10 Torr), respectively. The
measurement procedures and conditions were similar to those in
Fig. 4(a) and (b). In a low vacuum, the measured turn-on voltage
of FE after the UV-B light had been turned off for 5, 10, 15, and
20 min was 450, 530, 570, and 680 V, respectively. In the high
vacuum, the measured turn-on voltage of FE after the UV-B light
had been turned off for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 min was 210,
300, 320, 340, 370, 430, and 510 V, respectively. The FE
properties are still improved when the UV-B illumination is
turned off. According to the aforementioned experiments, the
UV-A and UV-B improved the FE performance, and the UV-
enhancing affect continues even after the UV light has been
turned off for 20 min.
Fig. 6(a)(d) presents the FN plots that correspond to Figs.
4(a) and (b), and 5(a) and (b), respectively. Because the FE
performance worsens with time after the UV light is turned off,
an FESEM instrument was utilized to study the local mor-
phology of ZnO NWs after the measurements of FE were made.
Fig. 7(a)(d) displays scanning electron microscope (SEM)
images of ZnO NWs 10, 20, 30, and 40 min, respectively, after
the FE was measured. NWs with a higher aspect ratio (longer
1113
Fig. 5. (a) FE measured in low vacuum after UV-B light is turned off. (b) FE
measured in high vacuum after UV-B light is turned off.
and sharper) contributed more to the current FE, so the emission
current was constricted within a small local area in the sample.
The high current density produced a very high temperature on a
small local area of the sample, where the ZnO NWs therefore
locally melted and its morphology changed. The consequent
change in sample morphology from NWs to planar with time
reduced the enhancement factor and caused FE to decay.
The UV irradiation produces the photonics and simultane-
ously heating the sample. Maybe a part of FE enhancement is
contributed from the high temperature. Fig. 8 reveals that
temperatures of sample increased upon exposure to UV light.
Even if these substrates were exposed to UV an hour, the maxi-
mum temperature is still smaller than 50 C. The UV exposure
temperature is low and difficult to enhance FE characteristics.
As is well known, ZnO NWs are used in gas sensing because
they have a large surface-to-volume ratio. The sensing mech-
anism of gas-sensing semiconductors operates only at the sur-
face. Oxygen ionosorption removes conduction electrons and
reduces the conductance of ZnO. According to Barsan et al.,
interaction with atmospheric oxygen causes the ionosorption of
2
molecular (O 2 ) and atomic (O , O ) species at tempera-tures of
25500 C [26]. Temperature programmed desorption, Fourier
transform infrared (FTIR), and electron spin resonance
1114
Fig. 6. (a)(d) FN plots that corresponds to Figs. 4(a) and (b), and 5(a) and
(b), respectively.
Fig. 7. SEM images of ZnO NWs and measured FE after UV-A had been
turned off for (a) 10 min, (b) 20 min, (c) 30 min, and (d) 40 min.
Fig. 8. Substrate temperatures increasing upon exposure to UV.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NANOTECHNOLOGY, VOL. 11, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2012
Fig. 9. ZnO NW in (a) low vacuum, (b) high vacuum, and (c) UV light.
indicate that at 150 C, the molecular species O 2 dominates,
while above this temperature, the atomic species dominates.
At low temperatures, molecular O 2 is commonly
chemisorbed. The FE was measured at room temperature.
Most of the adsorbed atmospheric oxygen was molecular
O 2 . The reaction kinetics are as follows:
O2 (gas) O2 (ads.)
O2 (ads.) + e O2 .
Photoconduction in a ZnO NW is governed by the desorp-tion
and adsorption of oxygen [27][29]. In the dark, oxygen
molecules at the surface of an NW carry negative charges by
capturing free electrons from the n-type ZnO. Accordingly, a
depletion layer with low conductivity is formed near the sur-face.
Fig. 9(a) and (b) displays that adsorption of O 2 molecules at the
surface of a ZnO NW in a low vacuum and a high vacuum,
respectively. The thickness of the depletion layer at the surface of
a NW increases with oxygen concentration. The low vacuum [see
Fig. 9(a)] yields a thicker depletion layer than the high vacuum
[see Fig. 9(b)]. The depletion layer reduces the surface
conductivity, degrading FE performance.
Many O 2 oxygen molecules are adsorbed on the surface of
5
NWs, even though the chamber is at a high vacuum of 10
Torr. The absorption of UV light generates electron hole
pairs. The photogenerated holes oxidize the adsorbed O 2
oxygen molecules on the surface, while the remaining
electrons in the conduction band increase the conductivity
+
O 2 + h O2 (gas).
Since most of the surface O 2 oxygen molecules become O 2
gas upon exposure to UV light, the O 2 gas is rapidly removed
from the chamber by the exhaust pump. Fig. 9(c) indicates that
UV light reduces the amount of surface O 2 oxygen molecules.
The depletion layer almost completely disappears. In the vac-uum
chamber, the very small amount of remaining O2 gas may be
adsorbed on the surface, forming O 2 oxygen molecules, but
recovering the state of the NWs before exposure to UV-light in a
short time is difficult. The enhancement by UV continues even
for at least 20 min after the UV light has been turned off.
Fig. 10 shows that FE was measured under pulsed UV-A
exposure in low vacuum. The pulsed UV-A light is turned on 2
s/min. The emission current was kept at an applied voltage of 350
V and measured continuously for 1400 s. In the first 200 s, the
emission current is around 4.5 106 A, and the current has
HSU AND TSAI: FIELD EMISSION OF ZnO NANOWIRES IN LOW VACUUM FOLLOWING VARIOUS ENHANCEMENTS
Fig. 10. FE measured under pulsed UV exposure in low vacuum.
Fig. 11. Band diagrams of ZnO tips of NWs (a) in the dark and (b) under UV
light.
6 by doping gallium into ZnO nanowire on a p-GaN substrate, J. Phys.
rapidly decreased to stable status 2.5 10 A. According to
Fig. 7 SEM image, a few high aspect ratio NWs were melted
by ultrahigh temperature (ZnO melt point = 1975 C); then,
6 6
induce FE decay from 4.5 10 to 2.5 10 A, which is
stable emission current supported by a great quantity normal
aspect ratio NW. The pulse UV-A light reduces 90% UV
device power consumption. The low vacuum emission current
6
2.5 10 A is comparable with high vacuum results.
The tips of ZnO NWs provide most of the emission current
because the enhancement factor is highest there. The surface
O 2 oxygen molecules increase the thickness of the depletion
layer throughout the NWs. The tips of NWs suffer from the
adsorption of O 2 oxygen molecules onto the surface and the
increasing thickness of the depletion layer degrades the FE. Fig.
11(a) schematically depicts the band diagrams of a ZnO nanowire
tip in the dark. The tips of ZnO NWs almost entirely comprised
depletion regions because their diameters were ex-tremely small.
The Fermi level EF of the depletion region was close to the
middle of bandgap. Fig. 11(b) schematically depicts the band
diagrams of the tips of ZnO NWs under UV light.
The depletion layer of NW tips disappeared as surface O 2
oxygen molecules were removed. ZnO is an n-type material. The
EF shifted toward the conduction band EC , as presented in Fig.
11(b). The work function ( = Eva c EF ) upon exposure to UV
light was smaller than that in the dark, because UV light
increases EF . The decrease of the work function enhanced the FE
current and lowered the turn-on voltage.
1115
IV. CONCLUSION
High-density vertical ZnO NWs were synthesized by vapor
phase transport deposition without a metal catalyst or template.
The mean length and diameter of the ZnO NWs were around 3.5
m and 120 nm, respectively. XRD and PL spectra demon-strate
that these ZnO NWs were well oriented and highly crys-talline
with a wurtzite structure. The work functions of sam-ples that
had been exposed to UV-A and UV-B were reduced to 3.7 and 4.2
3
eV, respectively. At a low vacuum of 10 Torr, the FE turn-on
voltage upon exposure to UV light was lower than that in a high
6
vacuum of 10 Torr in the dark. The enhancement by UV
continues even when the UV light has been turned off for 20 min.
The depletion layer of NWs disappeared when UV light removed
O 2 oxygen molecules from the surface.
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1116 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NANOTECHNOLOGY, VOL. 11, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2012

[18] A. Umar, M. M. Rahman, A. Al-Hajry, and Y. B. Hahn, Highly- Cheng-Liang Hsu was born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1973. He received the B.S.
sensitive cholesterol biosensor based on well-crystallized flower-shaped degree in electronic engineering from Chung Yuan Christian University,
ZnO nanostructures, Talanta, vol. 78, pp. 284289, 2009. Chung-Li, Taiwan, in 1996, the M.S. degree in electronic engineering from
[19] Q. Zhao, X. Y. Xu, X. F. Song, X. Z. Zhang, D. P. Yu, C. P. Li, and L. Guo, the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, in 1998,
Enhanced field emission from ZnO nanorods via thermal annealing in and the Ph.D. de-gree in electrical engineering from the National Cheng Kung
oxygen, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 88, pp. 033102-1033102-3, 2006. University, Tainan, Taiwan, in 2005.
[20] S. H. Jo, J. Y. Lao, Z. F. Ren, R. A. Farrer, T. Baldacchini, and J. T. From 2000 to 2003, he was an Engineer at the Taiwan Semiconductor
Fourkas, Field-emission studies on thin films of zinc oxide nanowires, Manufacturing Company, specializing in CMOS low-voltage, low-K devices
Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 83, pp. 48214823, 2003. and 0.13-m copper processes. From 2003 to 2005, he was with the Mate-rial
[21] C. L. Hsu, S. J. Chang, H. C. Hung, Y. R. Lin, C. J. Huang, Y. K. Tseng, and Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, where he
I. C. Chen, Well-aligned, vertically Al-doped ZnO nanowires syn-thesized contributed to develop the synthesis of nanoscale materials. In 2005, he joined
on ZnO:Ga/glass templates, J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 152, the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Ming-Chi
pp. G378G381, 2005. University of Technology, Taipei, as an Assistant Professor. He is currently an
[22] S. Y. Bae, C. W. Na, J. H. Kang, and J. Park, Comparative structure and Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, National
optical properties of Ga-, In-, and Sn-doped ZnO nanowires synthesized University of Tainan, Tainan. He has published more than 60 contributions in
via thermal evaporation, J. Phys. Chem. B, vol. 109, pp. 25262531, journals. His research interests include nanoscale 1-D semiconductor.
2005.
[23] S. J. Chang, T. J. Hsueh, C. L. Hsu, Y. R. Lin, I C. Chen, and B. R. Huang,
A ZnO nanowire vacuum pressure sensor, Nanotechnology, vol. 19,
pp. 095505-1095505-4, 2008.
[24] S. C. Lyu, Y. Zhang, H. Ruh, H. J. Lee, H. W. Shim, E. K. Suh, and C. J.
Lee, Low temperature growth and photoluminescence of well-aligned
zinc oxide nanowires, Chem. Phys. Lett., vol. 363, pp. 134138, 2002.
[25] B. J. Jin, S. H. Bae, S. Y. Lee, and S. Im, Effects of native defects on
opti-cal and electrical properties of ZnO prepared by pulsed laser
deposition, Mater. Sci. Eng. B, vol. 71, pp. 301305, 2000.
[26] N. Barsan, M. Schweizer-Berberich, and W. Gopel, Fundamental and
practical aspects in the design of nanoscaled SnO2 gas sensors: A status
report, Fresenius J. Anal. Chem., vol. 365, pp. 287304, 1999.
[27] Q. H. Li, T. Gao, Y. G. Wang, and T. H. Wang, Adsorption and desorption of
oxygen probed from ZnO nanowire films by photocurrent measure-ments,
Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 86, pp. 123117-1123117-3, 2005.
[28] O. Harnack, C. Pacholski, H. Weller, A. Yasuda, and J. M. Wessels, Rec-
tifying behavior of electrically aligned ZnO nanorods, Nano Lett., vol. 3, Yao-Ching Tsai received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the
pp. 10971101, 2003. National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan, in 2008, and the M.S.
[29] Y. W. Heo, B. S. Kang, L. C. Tien, D. P. Norton, F. Ren, J. R. La Roche, degree in electrical engineering from the National University of Tainan,
and S. J. Pearton, UV photoresponse of single ZnO nanowires, Appl. Tainan, Taiwan, in 2010.
Phys. A, vol. 80, pp. 497499, 2005. He is currently a Semiconductor Assembly Process Engineer with
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc., Kaohsiung, Taiwan.