Patterned boron nanowires and field emission properties

Patterns of assembled Fe3O4 nanoparticles on Si(111) wafer were formed by the self-assembly technique. Three factors, concentration of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles solution, dosage of the solution, and temperature of the Si wafer, were found to affect the quality of the Fe3O4 nanoparticle patterns. The prepared Si(111) wafer was used as the substrate to grow the patterned boron nanowires by thermoreduction method. Furthermore, a notable field emission property with moderate turn on field was obtained on the patterned boron nanowires. Our results indicate that the patterned boron nanowires have a great potential of applications in flat plane display and electron emission nanodevices.