The structure of pure and Al doped ZnO (AZO) nanorods (NRs) has been studied. A post annealing procedure in oxygen ambience at 400ﹾC were used in order to improve crystallinity of both group of samples. The XRD patterns illustrate that the Al doped ZnO NRs were successfully synthesized using our method. Then, the field emission properties of the as grown NRs before and after annealing process were evaluated by our home-made setup. Experimental results show that Al density in ZnO NRs directly affects FE properties of these samples. The oxygen post annealing process leads to a significant improvement in the field emission performances of pristine and doped ZnO NRs including considerably lower turn on voltage, and higher emission current. Manuscript profile