Field emission from carbon and silicon films with pillar microstructure

Electron field emission was measured from carbon and silicon thin films comprised of a porous, pillar microstructure fabricated by the glancing angle deposition technique. This single step glancing angle deposition technique leads to a high areal density of pillars with nanometer-scale diameters. A comparison of emission has been made against normal dense films of the same material. It has been observed that emission from the pillar films occurs at a much lower threshold voltage than emission from the normally deposited film. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.