Refine
Document Type
Language
- English (6)
Has Fulltext
- no (6)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (6)
Keywords
- field emission (4)
- photoemission (3)
- CATHODES (1)
- Current measurement (1)
- Decision support systems (1)
- Electric fields (1)
- GaN (1)
- Gallium nitride (1)
- Iron (1)
- Light emitting diodes (1)
Institute
Begutachtungsstatus
- peer-reviewed (6)
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.
Precisely aligned high-aspect-ratio (HAR) silicon tip arrays were fabricated using enhanced reactive ion etching with an inductively-coupled-plasma followed by a sharpening oxidation. A gold thin film was then sputtered only on the tips of the HAR structures. Field-emission (FE) properties from Au-coated HAR p-Si tip array cathodes have been systematically investigated by means of field emission scanning microscopy (FESM). A rather high efficiency of the HAR Si structures (71% at 550 V), but limited homogeneous FE with currents of 1-600 nA might be correlated with the varying geometry of the tips and the presence of oxides. I-V measurements of single Au-coated HAR emitters revealed activation effects and the saturation current region at 3 nA. An increase of the saturation current by 4 orders of magnitude was observed during 20 hours of conditioning at constant voltage, which finally resulted in nearly reproducible FN curves with a ß-factor of 473. An excellent stability of the emission current of less than 1 % was obtained during the additional long-time conditioning at constant voltage. Optical switching under halogen lamp illumination resulted in at least 2 times higher saturation currents and showed a linear dependence of the FE current on the light color temperature.
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.
We have carried out systematic investigations of p-type black Si field emitter arrays under laser illumination. As expected the current-voltage characteristic revealed a strong saturation providing a high photosensitivity, which had a maximum on-off ratio of 43 at a maximum current of 13 μA. The saturation current was stable in the dark as well as under illumination with fluctuations <;0.7%. Results from time-resolved measurements of the photo-sensitivity showed a rather fast response but a long decay time. Electron spectra in the dark and under laser illumination revealed the origin of the emission.
We have investigated the properties of black Si field emitter arrays under strong electric fields and laser illumination. A low onset field of 1.8 MV/m for an emission current of 1 nA was obtained. A pronounced saturation region of the dark and photo-enhanced current was observed, which provided a short-term stability of 0.1% at 0.4 μA and 0.7% at 1.0 μA, respectively. As maximum value for the photosensitivity, an on-off current switching ratio of 43 reaching about 13 μA was achieved at a laser power of 15 mW. Electron spectra in the dark and under laser illumination are presented, showing a current and light-sensitive voltage drop across the emitters as well as hints for hot electron emission.
In this contribution we report on field emission (FE) cathodes based on thin-film LED-technology and surface texturing. The FE cathode can be used both as an n-GaN cathode with an electrical contact at the top side metallization as well as a pn-GaN diode contacting only the p-GaN layer at the bottom side of the structure. The local and integral FE properties of the textured surface of the LED structure were investigated. For n-GaN an integral emission current up to 1.0 μA at an electric field of 19 V/μm was achieved. The pn-GaN diode measurements showed an integral current saturation behavior with two orders of magnitude lower FE currents. Regulated voltage scans obtained by FE scanning microscopy revealed a well-distributed emission over the whole cathode area. Measurements under pulsed tunable laser illumination and moderate electric fields indicated charge carrier generation in the buried double-heterostructures at photon energies below 3.5 eV besides normal photoemission above 4.1 eV.
