Field-emission-induced growth of nanowire between electrodes

We demonstrate the growth of a tungsten nanowire between two microtip electrodes by the field-emission-induced growth process. A nanowire is grown from the cathode towards the opposing biased anode in a quasicontinuous manner. In order to study the nanowire growth process, the wire is grown in a stepwise manner until it bridges the cathode and the anode. The growth of the nanowire across the cathode-anode gap falls into four different regimes of initiation, steady growth, close-gap growth, and finally bridging of electrodes. The profile of the field-enhancement factor of the nanowire field emitter during growth matches the results from electrostatic modeling.