Microstructure and field-emission characteristics of boron-doped Si nanoparticle chains

One-dimensional boron-doped Si nanoparticle chains synthesized in bulk quantity using laser ablating SiO powder mixed with B2O3 powder have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy and measured by electron field emission. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the outer diameters of the nanoparticles in the chains were around 15 nm. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy showed that the nanoparticles had perfect lattices with an 11 nm crystalline core and a 2 nm amorphous oxide outerlayer while the distance of the interparticles was 4 nm. Field-emission measurement showed that the turn-on field of Si nanoparticle chains was 6 V/μm, which was much lower than that of undoped Si nanowires (9 V/μm). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed that the Si nanoparticles had been heavily doped by boron.