Silicon field emitters were coated with AlN by a reactive magnetron sp
uttering technique. The thickness of the coatings varied from 0.5 to 2
mu m. Emission characteristics of AlN coated emitters were measured.
The poor reproducibility of emission characteristics for different sam
ples prepared at the same conditions may be attributed to the non-repr
oducible concentration of impurities, first of all, oxygen in AlN film
s. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.