Radial AlN nanotips on carbon fibers as flexible electron emitters

A facile catalyst-free approach using a simple thermal transport method has been developed to fabricate high-density AlN nanotips on flexible carbon cloth at large scales for use as field emission (FE) emitters. The AlN nanotips exhibit good performance as flexible cold-cathode electron emitters, with a very low turn-on electric field of 1.1–2.3 V μm−1, a low threshold electric field of 1.5–2.5 V μm−1, and a high emission current density. The excellent field emission properties of the AlN nanotips are attributed to the large field enhancement factor of 6895 as well as the combined effect of the tip profile of the AlN nanostructures and the excellent electron transport path of the conductive carbon cloth substrate.