Emission Characteristics of Ion-Implanted Silicon Emitter Tips

Abstract

An ion implantation technique has been applied to control the energy band structure of Si field-emitter tip surface. B + or P + ions were implanted after fabrication of a gated emitter structure. No changes in emitter structure were observed after ion implantation and successive annealing at 800° C. Current-voltage ( I-V ) characteristics of n, p, p/n and n/p emitter tips were measured: p/n indicates an n-type tip with B + ions implanted into the tip surface. It was found from the experimental results that n and p/n tips had I-V characteristics in agreement with the Fowler-Nordheim theory. The p and n/p tips, on the other hand, exhibited a current saturation property in high electric field. The present saturation mechanism is explained by considering the energy band structure of the tip surface.