Enhancement in field emission of silicon microtips by bias-assisted carburization

Ultrathin carbon layers with thicknesses below 50 Å have been deposited on silicon microtip arrays by bias-assisted carburization (BAC) using microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition. The tip radius of these silicon tips is reduced below 55 nm under low deposition temperature. The field emission characterization has been performed in a high-vacuum environment. An enhancement in the field emission is observed of about 3 orders of magnitude in BAC silicon microtips over untreated silicon microtips. With an applied voltage of 1100 V, emission currents of 80 and 120 μA have been achieved for the films grown (at dc bias of −200 V for 40 min) with 15% and 25% ${\mathrm{CH}}_{\mathrm{4}}{\mathrm{/H}}_{\mathrm{2}}$ gas ratio, respectively. An emission current of 40 μA has been achieved for the film grown (at dc bias of −300 V for 40 min) with 3.5% ${\mathrm{CH}}_{\mathrm{4}}{\mathrm{/H}}_2$ ratio. The BAC silicon emitter has good emission stability at a constant voltage of 1100 V. These investigations indicate that further improvement of this technology will lead to simple and inexpensive field emission display devices.