Self-nucleated tellurium nanorods patterned growth: Their applications for excellent field emitters and optical devices

High density growth of vertically patterned conical shaped tellurium Te nano-rods (TNRs) via catalytic-free chemical vapor deposition method has been done. The orientation, size, density and ordered growth is optimized systematically by controlling the growth temperature. The synthesized nanorods are characterized by sophisticated techniques such as XRD, XPS, Raman spectroscopy, FESEM, EDS, TEM and HRTEM. The observed diameter of Te nano-rods is 60–80 nm having sharp tip with approximate density of 5.5 × 108mm2. The XRD showed that lattice parameters of grown TNRs are as, a = 4.11 Å and c = 5.21 Å. The XPS results of TNRs exhibited two discrete BE intense peaks at the positions of 583.6 eV and 573.5 eV supportive to the tellurium Te-3d3/2 and Te-3d5/2 states. In TNRs Raman spectrum the Te related vibration peaks are observed at 98, 123, 142 and 268. The Te nano-rods have displayed excellent FE characteristics having exceptionally low turn-on field 3.15 Vμm−1 (0.01 mAcm−2) with high stability (current fluctuation ∼ 3%)) which is sufficiently low for practical applications in the field emissions and opto-electronic future devices. The room temperature photoluminescence (PL) emission having highly intense peak at 366 nm (3.38 eV) specifies that Te nano-rods also have prospective utilization in light emitting devices. Along with the intense peaks, multiple weak peaks have also been noted in the range of 425 nm–525 nm exhibiting violet, blue and greenish shades. So the findings reported here offer the high density patterned growth of Te nano-rods arrays which unlocks novel directions for their prospective utilization in display and opto-electronic devices.