Scaling of emission currents and of current fluctuations of gated silicon emitter ensembles

Abstract

The scaling of emission currents and of their corresponding current fluctuations of ensembles of gated, monocrystalline silicon emitters ranging from n=1 to n=20 800 emitters have been investigated. For randomly selected ensembles, the current scales approximately with n and the fluctuation with n−0.16. For selected ensembles of identical emission behavior, the current scales with n and the fluctuations with n−0.5 as is expected from theory. The discrepancy in the exponent for the scaling of the current fluctuations is caused by the poor participation of the emitters within an ensemble. Only a few emitters per ensemble contribute to the total current. The scaling behavior can thus be used as a diagnostic tool to evaluate a given process. The measurements were performed at room temperature and at pressures of approximately 1×10−8 Torr.