Field Emission of Aluminum Nitride Nanocones Deposited on Titanium Substrate

We report the preparation of quasi-arrays of aluminum nitride nanocones via chemical vapor deposition on nitriding treated titanium substrate at 800 °C through the reaction between AlCl3 vapor and NH3/N2 gas. The field emission measurement exhibits a fine electron emission with the turn-on field of 10.7 V/mm, which is quite smaller than the turn-on field of 41.3 V/μm for aluminum nitride nanocones deposited on silicon wafer in our previous works. The reduction of turn-on field is attributed to the formation of a layer of conductive tiannium nitride on titanium substrate during the nitriding treatment.