Molybdenum and Cobalt Silicide Field Emitter Arrays

In order to improve both the level and the stability of electron emission, Mo and Co silicides were formed from Mo mono-layer and Ti/Co bi-layers on single crystal silicon field emitter arrays (FEAs), respectively. Using the slope of Fowler-Nordheim curve and tip radius measured from scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the effective work function of Mo and Co silicide FEAs were calculated to be 3.13 eV and 2.56 eV, respectively. Compared with silicon field emitters, Mo and Co silicide exhibited 10 and 34 times higher maximum emission current, 10 V and 46 V higher device failure voltage, and 6.1 and 4.8 times lower current fluctuation, respectively. Moreover, the emission currents of the silicide FEAs depending on vacuum level were almost the same in the range of $10^{-9}{\sim}10^{-6}$ torr. This result shows that silicide is robust in terms of anode current degradation due to the absorption of air molecules.