Refine
Year of publication
- 2020 (1)
Document Type
- Article (1)
Language
- English (1)
Has Fulltext
- no (1)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (1)
Keywords
- Electrical properties and parameters (1)
- Electron sources (1)
- Etching (1)
- Field emitter arrays (1)
- Laser ablation (1)
- Laser micromachining (1)
- Silicon chip (1)
- Triodes (1)
- Ultra-high vacuum (1)
Institute
Begutachtungsstatus
- peer-reviewed (1)
The components for a silicon chip electron source were fabricated by laser micromachining using pulsed laser ablation and wet chemical cleaning and etching dips. The field emission electron source consists of a silicon field emission cathode with 4 × 4 conical shaped emitters with a height of 250 μm and a tip radius of about 50 nm, a 50 μm thick laser-structured mica spacer, and a silicon grid electrode with a grid periodicity of 200 μm and a bar width of 50 μm. These three components are combined to a single chip with the size of 14 × 10 mm2 and the thickness of 1 mm to form the electron source. Several of these devices were characterized in ultrahigh vacuum. Onset voltages of about 165 V and cathode currents of about 15 μA for voltages lower than 350 V were observed. Operating the electron source with an anode voltage of 500 V and an extraction grid voltage of 300 V yielded a cathode current of 4.5 μA ± 8.9%, an anode current of 4.0 μA ± 9.6%, and a corresponding grid transmittance of 89%. Regulating the anode current by the extraction grid voltage, an extremely stable anode current of 5.0 μA ± 0.017% was observed. A long-term measurement over 120 h was performed, and no significant degradation or failure was observed.