Large-scale single-crystalline nanowires were fabricated using a catalysis-free vapor phase method with La and BCl3 as starting materials. The nanowires exhibit a low field-emission turn on (4.62V/μm at 10μA/cm2) and high current density. The turn-on field was found to decrease clearly from 4.62 to 3.41V/μm, while the estimated field enhancement factor increased from 405 to 723 upon increasing the ambient temperature from room temperature to 573K.

Enhanced Electron Field Emission from Single-Crystalline LaB6 Nanowires with Ambient Temperature. Xu, J.Q., Zhao, Y.M., Zhang, Q.Y.: Journal of Applied Physics, 2008, 104[12], 124306