Field Emission Properties of Surface-Modified Silicon Crystals of Different Types of Conduction

Abstract

A new technology of nanostructuring and modification of the surfaces of silicon crystals of different types of conduction, using self-organized carbon mask coatings and highly anisotropic plasma-chemical etching is proposed. It is shown that the structures obtained make it possible to reduce the field emission excitation thresholds by several times and to increase the maximum field emission current densities by more than an order of magnitude in comparison with traditional technologies. It is established that the relation between the morphological and field emission characteristics of the obtained multi-tip cathode arrays is determined by the type of electrical conduction of the semiconductor and the total dipole moment of its surface. It is shown that the interpretation of the relation between them using the representations of the Fowler and Nordheim theory is not sufficient.