Vapour–liquid–solid growth of one-dimensional In2Se3 nanostructures and their promising field emission behaviour

Abstract

Single crystalline ultra long In₂Se₃ nanowires have been grown by employing a single step facile thermal evaporation route under optimized conditions on Au/Si wafers, and morphology dependent field emission investigations on the In₂Se₃ nanostructure at the base pressure ∼1 × 10⁻⁸ mbar are explored. In addition, structural and morphological analysis of as-synthesized In₂Se₃ nanostructures has been carried out using XRD, SEM and TEM. A plausible explanation of the vapor–solid–liquid (VLS) growth mechanism based on the experimental results and reported literature has been presented. Furthermore, field emission measurements demonstrate remarkably enhanced emission behaviour, which is explained on the basis of the field enhancement factor and aspect ratio of the nanostructures. The synthesized In₂Se₃ nanowire emitter delivers a very high current density of ∼1.2 mA cm⁻² at an applied electric field of ∼6.33 V μm⁻¹. The present results demonstrate In₂Se₃ as an important candidate for potential applications in nano/micro-electronic devices.