Silicon electron emitters fabricated by ultraviolet laser pulses

Abstract

In this letter we consider the effect of laser pulse duration on the surface morphology and the field emissionproperties of silicon structured by UV laser pulses. In three different pulse duration regimes ranging from sub-ps to ns, we altered the morphology of the fabricated silicon microspike arrays. The field emissionproperties of the microspike arrays were influenced by the morphological changes exhibiting a reduction of the emission threshold field to 2.5 V ∕ μ m for 15 ns laser pulses. The ability of tuning the field emissionproperties of laser-fabricated silicon microspike arrays makes them excellent candidates for use as field emissioncathodes.