CHARACTERIZATION OF GRIDDED FIELD EMITTERS

A system combining field emission microscopy, field ion microscopy, atom probe. and current-voltage (I-V) measurement facilities has been developed to study gridded field emitter devices, either in the form of single tips or arrays. (I-V) measurement results, field emission images, and field ion images of a single tip and an array of 1500 tips are presented here, of which field ion images of the gridded emitters are reported for the first time. The first atom probe results from a gridded array are also given here, demonstrating that chemical composition analysis of gridded field emission cathodes is possible.