Improvement of the field emission characteristics of an oxidized porous polysilicon using annealed Pt/Ti surface emitter electrode

The field emission characteristics of an oxidized porous polysilicon were investigated with different annealing temperatures. Pt/Ti, Ir, and Au/NiCr were used as surface emitter electrodes, and Pt/Ti emitter showed highly efficient and stable electron emission characteristic compared with the conventional Au/NiCr electrode. Thin Ti layer played an important role in promotion of adhesion of Pt to SiO2 surface and uniform distribution of electric field on the OPPS surface. Additionally, the Ti layer efficiently blocked the diffusion of emitter metal, which resulted in more reliable emission characteristics. Pt/Ti emitter annealed at 350 degrees C/1 h showed the highest efficiency of 3.36% at V-ps = 16 V, which resulted from the improvement of interfacial contact characteristics of thin emitter metal to an oxidized porous polysilicon. Annealing above 400 degrees C showed that Pt/Ti and Ir emitter electrode were thermally more stable than Au/NiCr emitter. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.