Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- conference proceeding (article) (37)
- Article (16)
- Part of Periodical (4)
- Part of a Book (1)
- conference talk (1)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (59)
Keywords
- field emission (19)
- silicon (11)
- Current measurement (10)
- Iron (9)
- CATHODES (7)
- field emitter array (6)
- elemental semiconductors (5)
- Etching (4)
- black silicon (4)
- electron field emission (4)
Institute
Begutachtungsstatus
- peer-reviewed (43)
The performance of free electron lasers depends on the brilliance of the electron source. Nowadays photo-cathodes (e.g. Cs2Te) are used despite of their high emittance. To develop robust and more brilliant cathodes we have built up an UHV system which enables systematic photoemission (PE) measurements with a tunable pulsed laser (hv) at high electric fields (E). First results on Au and Ag crystals revealed only low quantum efficiency (QE) due to fast electron relaxation. Hence, we have started QE(hv,E) investigations on n- and p-Si wafers. Resonant PE was observed above as well as below the work function O, which can be assigned to optical transitions in the electronic band structure or explained by thermally excited states at the bottom of the conduction band. As expected, only low QE values were achieved even for n-Si probably due to surface oxide. Moreover, a significant rise of the QE peaks above O were obtained for n-Si at E >8 MV/m but limited by the occurrence of parasitic field emission from dust particles.
The homogeneity of emitters is very important for the performance of field emission (FE) devices. Reactive-ion etching (RIE) and oxidation have significant influences on the geometry of silicon tips. The RIE influences mainly the anisotropy of the emitters. Pressure has a strong impact on the anisotropic factor. Reducing the pressure results in a higher anisotropy, but the etch rate is also lower. A longer time of etching compensates this effect. Furthermore an improvement of homogeneity was observed. The impact of uprating is quite low for the anisotropic factor, but significant for the homogeneity. At low power the height and undercut of the emitters are more constant over the whole wafer. The oxidation itself is very homogeneous and has no observable effect on further variation of the homogeneity. This modified fabrication process allows solving the problem of inhomogeneity of previous field emission arrays.
We report on the field emission properties of GaN LED surfaces. The textured extraction facet acts both as light scattering layer in order to increase the light extraction efficiency of the LED as well as nanostructured cathode surface for the field emission (FE) of electrons. The LED emits blue light with a peak wavelength of around 450 nm. The FE properties were investigated by a scanning microscope. Integral measurements as well as regulated voltage scans for 1 nA FE current over an area of 400 * 400 µm2were used to investigate both overall and local FE properties. A high number of well-distributed emitters with an average field enhancement factor ß of 85 and stable integral emission currents up to 100 µA at an electric field of 80 V/µm (Øanode= 880 µm) were found. Photo-field-emission spectroscopy (PFES) using a tunable pulsed laser revealed an enhanced photo absorption of the InGaN/GaN quantum well structures near the emission wavelength of the LED (<3.5 eV), whereas at high photon energies (>4.1 eV) photoemission from the GaN surface was observed.
Silicon-based cathodes with precisely aligned field emitter arrays of sharp tips applicable for miniaturized electron sources were successfully fabricated and characterized. This was made possible by an improved fabrication process using wet thermal oxidation, wet etching, and reactive-ion etching steps with adjustable anisotropy. As substrate materials, both p-doped silicon and n-doped silicon were used. The cathode chips contain about 3 × 10 5 Si tips/cm 2 in a triangular array with tip heights of 2.5 μm, tip radii of less than 30 nm, and spacing of 20 μm. Well-aligned field emission (FE) and excellent homogeneity from all tips (i.e., 100% efficiency) and maximum stable currents of typically 0.1 μA (0.6 μA) for p (n)-type Si were reproducibly achieved. The current-voltage characteristics of the p-Si tips exhibit the expected saturation at around 10 nA with around ten times better current stability, whereas the n-Si tips show the usual Fowler-Nordheim behavior. Additional coating of the Si tips with 5-nm Cr and 10-nm Au layers resulted in improved stability and at least five times higher average FE current limits (about 3 μA) at about 30% higher operation voltage.
The electron current from field-emitting B-doped Si-tip arrays under illumination was studied. An improved cathode design with a patch of 271 tips yielded a reproducible cathode current between 0.2-2000 nA in the electric field range of 3.8-6.6 V/μm. The plateau in the Fowler-Nordheim plot shows the actual carrier depletion and leads to a very stable emission at ~1 μA with a current noise of less than 3.3 %. Color-filtered halogen lamp illumination was used to investigate the photo-sensitivity of the saturation current. The intensity-normalized current switching ratio increases nonlinearly with the photon energy. This hints either for secondary generation in the conduction band or deeper valence band excitation. The first is supported by a rough estimation of the quantum efficiency. Further experiments with a tunable laser and electron spectroscopy are planned.
In order to optimize our field-emitting silicon structures, the influence of geometric parameters like aspect ratio, aperture angle and curvature on the field enhancement factor was investigated by finite element simulations. A universal geometric model consisting of a rounded triangle and elliptic curvatures was taken for modeling a variety of different silicon tip as well as ridge structures. Whereas, a high dependency of the field enhancement on the aperture angle was found, the simulations show that the elliptic curvature affects the field enhancement only marginal.
In order to improve the uniformity and field emission stability of p-type silicon tip arrays for pulsed sensor applications, we have systematically studied the influence of the fabrication parameters on the tip shape and the specific operating conditions. Based on detailed design calculations of the field enhancement, we have fabricated a series of hexagonal arrays of B-doped Si-tips in a triangular arrangement, each containing a different number of tips (91, 575 and 1300) of 1 μm height, 20 nm apex radius, and 20 μm pitch. The field emission properties of both individual tips and complete arrays were investigated with by field emission scanning microscopy. The current plateaus of these tips typically occur at about 10 nA and 60 V/μm field level. In this carrier depletion range, single tips provide the highest current stability (<; 4%) and optical current switching ratios of ~2.5. Rather homogeneous emission of the tip arrays leads to an almost linear scaling of the saturation current (2 nA/tip) and to a much improved current stability (<; 1%) measured over 1 hour.
We have fabricated a test chip with various hexagonal arrays of B-doped Si tips (height ~ 3 μm, apex radius <; 30 nm, number 1-4447, resistivity 4 Ωcm, 100 orientation) in triangular arrangement (pitch 10 μm, density 1.16×10 6 cm -2 ) in order to systematically investigate the field emission current scaling with the number N of tips. Regulated voltage scans for 1 nA revealed rather efficient emission from nearly all tips of the arrays at an average field of 15 V/μm. The expected current plateau was always obtained at fields around 20 V/μm, but its width strongly increased with N. In this carrier depletion range, the single tip provided a much higher stability (<; 5%) of the current (2-3 nA) than at lower (>; 50 %) and higher currents (>; 30%). Integral current measurements of the hexagonal arrays resulted in a statistically improved current stability (<; 1%) but only a weak increase of the total current with N 0.28 yet. These results will be discussed with respect to the remaining inhomogeneity of the tips.
We have investigated the properties of single n- and p-type black silicon (b-Si) pillars with a height of 20 μ m under strong electric field and halogen lamp or laser illumination. For both type of b-Si pillar structures, I-V measurements revealed strong activation effects, which consisted in sudden current increases during the first up/down voltage sweeps. The maximum reproducible emission current from a single n-type b-Si pillar structure was about 15 μ A. A pronounced saturation region at 240 nA was observed for a single p-type b-Si pillar. The current fluctuation over time showed a standard deviation of 28% and 2.5% for n- and p-type single b-Si pillar structures, respectively. Optical switching under halogen lamp illumination resulted in at least 3 times higher saturation currents and showed a linear dependence of the FE current on the laser power.
Microrods and microlines by three-dimensional epitaxially grown GaN for field emission cathodes
(2017)
The three-dimensional epitaxial technique allows the realization of gallium nitride lines in addition to the rods. To optimize the properties of GaN-based field emission cathodes further investigations and an improvement of the epitaxial process were performed. The microrods and microlines consist of a one-order higher n-doped gallium nitride in comparison to the gallium nitride layer on the sapphire substrate. The typical height of the microrods and -lines is about 5 μm. The field emission properties of these structures were investigated in diode configuration by integral field emission measurements at pressures below 10 -9 mbar. For the microrods (microlines) a voltage of 1100 V (2000 V) was measured for a field emission current of about 0.5 μA with an onset field of about 12 MV/m (24 MV/m). Furthermore, the field enhancement factors for microrods and -lines are in the range of 300 and 200, respectively.
Photosensitivity of single lightly p-doped, highly p-doped, with an integrated p/n junction and intrinsic high-aspect-ratio (HAR) silicon tips was investigated in an ultra-high vacuum environment. The current-voltage characteristics (I-V) of the lightly doped p-type HAR tips showed a characteristic current saturation at around 10-12 nA, whereas the HAR Si tips with p/n junction showed similar saturation phenomena, however, at much smaller current values starting at ~20-30 pA. Optical switching under a halogen lamp illumination resulted in at least 2-4 times higher saturation currents and showed a linear dependence between the illumination power and the FE current, for both types of structures. In case of the highly p-doped HAR tips optical current switching effects, i. e. current saturation, were observed at rather low current levels 1-2 pA. Intrinsic HAR Si-tips showed relative unstable field emission behavior without a clear evidence of the photosensitivity.
We investigated two different field emitter arrays consisting of 10×10 p-type and 10×10 undoped Au-coated high aspect ratio silicon tips. The I-V characterization of the p-type sample showed a pronounced saturation for voltages higher than 500 V and a maximum emission current of 39 nA. The metallized sample revealed a FN-like emission up to several μA. The metallized and the p-type sample operating below the saturation region showed high current fluctuations of ±16%. Whereas, the metallized sample with current regulation and the p-type sample in the saturation yielded a current stability of ±0.4% and ±0.3%, respectively. Investigations in the frequency domain revealed the for field emission typical 1/f-noise. By operating in the saturation region (p-type sample) or using an emission current regulation (metallized sample) the noise level was reduced by at least 20 dB. Finally, the p-type sample was illuminated by a light emitting diode to increase and modulate the emission current in the saturation region. The emission current was increased by a factor of 3.7 to 145 nA. With this configuration we emulated an unstable emission behavior and evaluated the performance of our emission current regulation circuit.
In this contribution we will present an algorithm to extract the characteristics of non-Fowler-Nordheim (FN) circuit elements from saturation limited field emission (FE) measurement data. The method for calculating the voltage drop on limiting circuit elements is based on circuit theory as well as Newton's method. Since no assumption on the limiting circuit is made, this method is applicable to any FE data showing saturation. To be able to determine the significance of any parameter output, the uncertainties of data and extracted parameters are fully taken into account throughout the algorithm. External serial resistors and a limiting p-doped substrate are analyzed, where the latter shows a diode-like behavior.
A control circuit to stabilize the flux of electrons transmitted through an extractor electrode is presented. By controlling the emission current a fluctuation with a standard deviation of 0.015% is observed. However, the achievable stability of the transmitted electron current is limited due to a variation of the extraction grid current ratio showing a standard deviation of 4.33%. By regulating the difference of the emission current and the extraction grid current an improved stability of the transmitted electron current down to a standard deviation of 0.280% is observed. Even with operation at 2 × 10 -5 mbar a standard deviation of 0.558% is achieved.
Bei der Feldemission (kalte Emission) können Elektronen durch ein starkes elektrisches Feld eine glatte und leitende Oberfläche verlassen. Die Elektronen tunneln dabei durch eine Potentialbarriere, deren Breite durch ein äußeres elektrisches Feld verkleinert wird. Durch das Hinzufügen einer integrierten Gate-Elektrode um eine Siliziumspitze kann die notwendige Einsatzspannung für Feldemission deutlich gesenkt werden. Zwischen Si-Kathode und Gate-Elektrode befindet sich dabei eine Isolationsschicht, die höchste Anforderungen bezüglich der elektrischen Durchbruchsfestigkeit erfüllen muss. Mit einer Kombination aus Trocken- (Schichtdicke 50 nm) und Feuchtoxid (Schichtdicke 950 nm) konnte eine Isolationsschicht entwickelt werden, die im integrierten Aufbau eine minimale Durchbruchsfeldstärke von 3,2 MV/cm aufweist. Für die Realisierung von Siliziumkathoden mit integrierter Gate-Elektrode wurde ein bereits bestehender Herstellungsprozess um zusätzliche Prozessschritte erweitert. Die Übertragung der lateralen Position der Spitze erfolgt durch Strukturierung des Umkehrlacks AZ5214 und einer RIE-Ätzung der zuvor hergestellten SiO2-Schicht. Nach dem Entfernen der Lackschicht wird die vertikale Struktur der Siliziumspitzen durch einen RIE-Ätzprozess mit den Prozessgasen SF6 und O)2 realisiert. Aus einer thermischen Oxidation bei 940 °C resultiert anschließend die Isolationsschicht zwischen Si-Kathode und Gate-Elektrode . Gleichzeitig wird diese Anschärfeoxidation auch zur Realisierung der endgültigen Spitzengeometrie verwendet. Durch die lithographische Strukturierung des Photolacks AZ5214 kann dabei die Fläche der aufgedampften Gate-Elektrode festgelegt werden. Die Gate-Elektrode wird in einem selbstjustierenden Prozessschritt exakt konzentrisch um die Si-Spitze aufgedampft. Der gerichtete Aufdampfprozess bewirkt eine Abschattung, so dass das Oxidplättchen nicht komplett von Metall ummantelt wird. Die Opferschicht aus Photolack wird mit den nicht benötigten Metallflächen in einem Lift-off-Prozess entfernt.
We report on the fabrication and the emission characterization of single ring-shaped Si ridges with a coating of diamond-like carbon (DLC). The reactive ion etching and the subsequent inductively coupled plasma step were adjusted to realize ring-shaped Si ridges with a height of 7.5 μm respectively 15 μm and an apex radius of 20 – 25 nm. The samples were coated with a DLC layer (thickness ≈ 2 – 5 nm) by a filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition system in order to lower the work function of the emitter and to improve the field emission characteristics. The field emission characterizations were done in diode configuration with cathode and anode separated by a 50 μm thick mica spacer. A higher emission current was carried out for the ring-shaped Si ridge in comparison to the point-shaped Si tips due to the increased emission area. The highest emission current of 0.22 μA at 1000 V was measured on a DLC-coated sample with the highest aspect ratio. No degradation of the emission current was observed in the plateau regime during a measurement period of 6 h. Finally, no decreasing performance of the field emission properties was found due to changes in the geometry or destructions.
A novel three-dimensional epitaxial technique allows on patterned substrates the realization of gallium nitride pillars, also known as nano- and microrods. The typical dimensions of the microrods are in the range of one micron for the radius of the hexagonal footprint and about 10 μm in height. The microrods consist of a semiconductor heterostructure with an n GaN core, a n-GaN shell, a p GaN shell and an intermediate quantum well layer. The field emission properties were investigated in diode configuration by integral field emission measurements in a vacuum chamber at pressures around 10 -9 mbar. The spacer was mica with a thickness of 50 μm. A metallized fine-meshed nitride grid (or a metallized Si-grid) was used as anode. A current of about 1 μA at a voltage of 1250 V (1750 V) was measured. An onset field of about 12.5 MV/m (20 MV/m) and field enhancement factors in the range of 200 to 500 (150 to 300) were found. The investigation with the fine-meshed grid showed an expected pronounced saturation region.
Single gated p-type Si-tips with two different tip radii were fabricated. An emission current of 2.40 μA was measured for the sharp-edged tip at a voltage of 170 V. In contrast, a stable and reproducible emission behavior was observed with an increased tip radius resulting in a pronounced saturation region between 90 V and 150 V, but merely an emission current of 0.55 μA at 150 V. More remarkable is the stable emission behavior with fluctuation of ± 4 % during a measurement period of 30 minutes. The integral emission current in a homogeneous tip array (16 emitters) showed nearly the same I-V characteristics compared to the single tip and is therefore, most dominated by only a stable single tip in the array.