Local field-emission characteristic of individual AlN cone fabricated by focused ion-beam etching method
✍ Scribed by Y.L. Li; C.Y. Shi; J.J. Li; C.Z. Gu
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 716 KB
- Volume
- 254
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0169-4332
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✦ Synopsis
Highly (0 0 2)-oriented AlN film was deposited on n-type (1 0 0)-oriented silicon substrates by the radio frequency magnetron sputtering method. An individual AlN cone with high aspect ratio was fabricated by the focused ion-beam (FIB) etching process in the surface of an as-formed AlN film. This etching method can easily control the tip radius and height to obtain AlN cones with different aspect ratios. The field-emission property of the individual AlN cone was measured in a scanning electron microscopy system equipped with a movable probe as the anode above the AlN tip. The results indicated that the as-formed single AlN cone with high aspect ratio possessed good field-emission ability although it only had a tiny emission area. Compared with a single Si tip fabricated by the same method, a single AlN cone exhibits better field-emission ability, and hence, has great potential as a promising candidate of point electron source for application in vacuum electronic devices.