The present investigation reported on a novel oxygen-assisted etching growth method that can directly transform wafer-scale plain VO₂ thin films into pyramidal-like VO₂ nanostructures with highly improved field-emission properties. The oxygen applied during annealing played a key role in the formation of the special pyramidal-like structures by introducing thin oxygen-rich transition layers on the top surfaces of the VO₂ crystals. An etching related growth and transformation mechanism for the synthesis of nanopyramidal films was proposed. Structural characterizations confirmed the formation of a composite VO₂ structure of monoclinic M1 (P21/c) and Mott insulating M2 (C2/m) phases for the films at room temperature. Moreover, by varying the oxygen concentration, the nanocrystal morphology of the VO₂ films could be tuned, ranging over pyramidal, dot, and/or twin structures. These nanopyramidal VO₂ films showed potential benefits for application such as temperature-regulated field emission devices. For one typical sample deposited on a 3-inch silicon substrate, its emission current (measured at 6 V/μm) increased by about 1000 times after the oxygen-etching treatment, and the field enhancement factor β reached as high as 3810 and 1620 for the M and R states, respectively. The simple method reported in the present study may provide a protocol for building a variety of large interesting surfaces for VO₂-based device applications.
Keywords: field-emission property; metal-insulator phase transition; nanopyramid; oxygen etching; vanadium oxide.