Inorganic semiconductor nanostructures are ideal systems for exploring a large number of novel phenomena at the nanoscale and investigating the size and dimensionality dependence of their properties for potential applications. The use of such nanostructures with tailored geometries as building blocks is also expected to play crucial roles in future nanodevices. Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes much attention has been paid to exploring the usage of inorganic semiconductor nanostructures as field-emitters due to their low work functions, high aspect ratios and mechanical stabilities, and high electrical and thermal conductivities. This article provides a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art research activities in the field. It mainly focuses on the most widely studied inorganic nanostructures, such as ZnO, ZnS, Si, WO3, AlN, SiC, and their field-emission properties. We begin with a survey of inorganic semiconductor nanostructures and the field-emission principle, and then discuss the recent progresses on several kinds of important nanostructures and their field-emission characteristics in detail and overview some additional inorganic semiconducting nanomaterials in short. Finally, we conclude this review with some perspectives and outlook on the future developments in this area.

Inorganic semiconductor nanostructures and their field-emission applications

Recent advances in the field of nanotechnology have led to the synthesis and characterization of an assortment of quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) structures, such as nanowires, nanoneedles, nanobelts and nanotubes. These fascinating materials exhibit novel physical properties owing to their unique geometry with high aspect ratio. They are the potential building blocks for a wide range of nanoscale electronics, optoelectronics, magnetoelectronics, and sensing devices. Many techniques have been developed to grow these nanostructures with various compositions. Parallel to the success with group IV and groups III–V compounds semiconductor nanostructures, semiconducting metal oxide materials with typically wide band gaps are attracting increasing attention. This article provides a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art research activities that focus on the Q1D metal oxide systems and their physical property characterizations. It begins with the synthetic mechanisms and methods that have been exploited to form these structures. A range of remarkable characteristics are then presented, organized into sections covering a number of metal oxides, such as ZnO, In2O3, SnO2 ,G a 2O3, and TiO2, etc., describing their electrical, optical, magnetic, mechanical and chemical sensing properties. These studies constitute the basis for developing versatile applications based on metal oxide Q1D systems, and the current progress in device development will be highlighted. # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quasi-one-dimensional metal oxide materials—Synthesis, properties and applications

This survey deals with 1/f noise in homogeneous semiconductor samples. A distinction is made between mobility noise and number noise. It is shown that there always is mobility noise with an /spl alpha/ value with a magnitude in the order of 10/sup -4/. Damaging the crystal has a strong influence on /spl alpha/, /spl alpha/ may increase by orders of magnitude. Some theoretical models are briefly discussed none of them can explain all experimental results. The /spl alpha/ values of several semiconductors are given. These values can be used in calculations of 1/f noise in devices. >

1/f Noise Sources

p-Type ZnO materials: Theory, growth, properties and devices

In this paper, we report an approach to prepare a new type of field emitter made up of ZnO nanowires coated with an amorphous carbon (a-C) or carbon nitride film (a-CNx). The coated ZnO nanowires form coaxial nanocables. The best field emission properties, which showed a very low turn-on electric field of 1.5?V??m?1 and an emission current density of 1?mA?cm?2 (enough to produce a luminance of 300?cd?m?2 from a VGA FED with a typical high-voltage phosphor screen efficacy of 9?lm?W?1) under the field of only 2.5?V??m?1, have been obtained from the a-CNx coated ZnO nanowire field emitter among three kinds of emitters: a-C coated ZnO nanowires, a-CNx coated ZnO nanowires and uncoated ZnO nanowires. Microstructures and crystal configuration were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Band edge transition without any significant photoluminescence peak relating to intrinsic defects has been observed by photoluminescence measurement. The superior properties of the field emission are attributed to the low work function of the coated carbon nitride film and good electron transport property of the ZnO nanowires with an extremely sharp tip.

Field emission property improvement of ZnO nanowires coated with amorphous carbon and carbon nitride films

The intriguing properties of zinc oxide-based semiconductors are being extensively studied as they are attractive alternatives to current silicon-based semiconductors for applications in transparent and flexible electronics. Although they have promising properties, significant improvements on performance and electrical reliability of ZnO-based thin film transistors (TFTs) should be achieved before they can be applied widely in practical applications. This work demonstrates a rational and elegant design of TFT, composed of poly crystalline ZnO:H/ZnO bilayer structure without using other metal elements for doping. The field-effect mobility and gate bias stability of the bilayer structured devices have been improved. In this device structure, the hydrogenated ultrathin ZnO:H active layer (∼3 nm) could provide suitable carrier concentration and decrease the interface trap density, while thick pure-ZnO layer could control channel conductance. Based on this novel structure, a high field-effect mobility of 42.6 ...

Rational Design of ZnO:H/ZnO Bilayer Structure for High-Performance Thin-Film Transistors.

We report the syntheses of self-catalyst-grown and self-assembled ZnO nanoscrews (ZNS). The morphology and microstructures were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. The results reveal that the aligned ZNS are single crystalline grown along the c axis, with 18 sides on their tops but six sides on their stems, while the whole exhibits sixfold symmetry. The formation of such a special-shaped ZNS that may have potential applications in fabrication of nanodevices, is related to the increase of the oxygen supply during the growth followed by a rapidly cooling down process. The growth kinetics of the ZNS is discussed. The field-emission studies show a good stability of the emission current and a low turn-on electrical field.

Self-assembly of aligned ZnO nanoscrews: Growth, configuration, and field emission

It is predicted that the conventional von Neumann computing architecture cannot meet the demands of future data-intensive computing applications due to the bottleneck between the processing and memory units. To try to solve this problem, in-memory computing technology, where calculations are carried out in situ within each nonvolatile memory unit, has been intensively studied. Among various candidate materials, 2D layered materials have recently demonstrated many new features that have been uniquely exploited to build next-generation electronics. Here, the recent progress of 2D memory devices is reviewed for in-memory computing. For each memory configuration, their operation mechanisms and memory characteristics are described, and their pros and cons are weighed. Subsequently, their versatile applications for in-memory computing technology, including logic operations, electronic synapses, and random number generation are presented. Finally, the current challenges and potential strategies for future 2D in-memory computing systems are also discussed at the material, device, circuit, and architecture levels. It is hoped that this manuscript could give a comprehensive review of 2D memory devices and their applications in in-memory computing, and be helpful for this exciting research area.

Chuansheng Liu

Papers

Field emission property improvement of ZnO nanowires coated with amorphous carbon and carbon nitride films

Rational Design of ZnO:H/ZnO Bilayer Structure for High-Performance Thin-Film Transistors.

Self-assembly of aligned ZnO nanoscrews: Growth, configuration, and field emission

Emerging 2D Memory Devices for In-Memory Computing.

Recent Advances in 2D Materials for Photodetectors