Abstract
The photoemission and electron collection properties of nanostructure photoemitter based on parallel aligned (Al)GaN nanowall arrays are investigated. In general, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of intrinsic GaN NWAs exhibit a significant improvement compared with planar photoemitter. Assisted by the built-in field induced by gradient decreasing Al component along axial direction of the nanowall, the proportion of emitting photoelectrons on each surface of a nanowall is redistributed and the collected photocurrent is obviously enhanced yet with a negative effect against quantum efficiency and emitted photocurrent. External field incorporation can tune the electron emitting path and improve the collection efficiency, but accompanied with a further decline in emitting photocurrent and quantum efficiency. For a certain configuration with nanowall height of 1 }tm and spacing length of 1 }tm, the optimum field intensity for emitting and collected photocurrent are respectively 0.3 and 0.5 V/}tm. The alteration of photocurrent varied with field intensity dominated by the photoelectrons from the top surface and irradiated side face of the nanowall. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.