Electron emission from silicon tips coated with sol-gel (Ba0.67Sr0.33)TiO3ferroelectric thin film

Electron emissions from arrays of silicon tips coated with barium strontium titanate (BST) (Ba0.67Sr0.33)TiO3 ferroelectric thin film have been invest igated. Sol-gel technique was used to prepare the (Ba0.67Sr0.33)TiO3 ferroe lectric solution. A conformal and stable (Ba0.67Sr0.33)TiO3 thin film coati ng of similar to 30 nm on silicon tips was achieved by spin coating and the rmal annealing. Silicon tips coated with BST ferroelectric film show consid erable improvement in electron emission. The coated tips have low turn-on e lectric fields ranging from 4 to 10 V/mum, which are significantly lower th an that of the uncoated silicon tips with turn-on electric field of similar to 70 V/mum. Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) plots of the emission data confirm that the emission conformed to F-N emission behavior and indicate that the coat ed silicon tips have a lower work function than the uncoated silicon tips. Sol-gel ferroelectric thin film coating is an efficient and practical way t o improve silicon tip emission behavior. (C) 2001 American Vacuum Society.