Strong deviations from Fowler-Nordheim behavior for field emission from individual SiC nanowires due to restricted bulk carrier generation

We report here field-emission (FE) studies of individual single-crystal SiC nanowires that showed several distinct I/V regimes including strong saturation resulting in highly nonlinear Fowler-Nordheim plots. The saturation is due to the formation of a depletion layer near the nanowire ends as predicted for FE from semiconductors and appears after in situ control of the surface cleanliness. This work opens the door to improving the uniformity, stability, and photon control of mass-produced planar nanowire FE cathodes and shows how FE can be used for transport measurements on individual semiconducting nanowires