ENHANCEMENT IN ELECTRON-EMISSION FROM POLYCRYSTALLINE SILICON FIELD EMITTER ARRAYS COATED WITH DIAMOND-LIKE CARBON

The gated polysilicon field emitter arrays coated with diamondlike car bon (DLC) were fabricated by a transfer mold method using anisotropic etching of Si and the deposition of DLC using methane ion beam. This p aper describes significant enhancement in electron emission and consid erable reduction in turn-on voltage for the emitter arrays by the DLC coating. In addition, the paper discusses the emission mechanism from the energy band diagram of a field emitter coated with a sufficiently thin dielectric material having a low electron affinity, and shows tha t an effective work function of the DLC coated polysilicon field emitt er is about 2.9 eV. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.