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The field emission (FE) properties of nanowires made from the recently synthesized nanowire material Mo6S3I6 are reported. A single nanowire was mounted on an indium-coated nickel holder by dielectrophoresis in isopropyl alcohol. A careful activation or conditioning in a vacuum of 10−7 mbar was shown to be indispensable in order to extract relatively stable FE currents in excess of 1 µA originating from only a few sites at the end of the nanowire. Measurements were performed in an FE microscope with an additional plane mesh, which enables us to record I–U characteristics in diode mode, or to observe the emission patterns in triode mode. With FE currents around 5–7 µA the emitter degrades gradually, and to some extent irreversibly. The degradation mechanism is not a reversal of the instant site build-up.

The field-emission (FE) properties of molybdenum disulfide nanotubes (NTs) are reported for the single-tip geometry. Reproducibly stable FE currents in excess of 10 μA were measured from single NT tips in vacuum of 10−7 mbar. Valuable characteristics of the nanotube material are ease of processing and reproducibility of the FE properties.

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Vertically aligned bundles of molybdenum-sulfur-iodine nanowires ͑MoSIx͒ were grown on a molybdenum foil, thin wire, and quartz substrate. By choosing different growth parameters we have been able to vary the surface density from ϳ0.01 to 0.5 bundless/ m 2 and the length of the nanowire bundles from ϳ30 m to 15 mm. In the case of growth on molybdenum, resistivity measurements show that a good electrical contact exists between the bundles and the metal substrate. The nanowires are found to have excellent field emission properties, competitive with state-of-the-art carbon nanotube large-area field emitters.