Thesis (M.S. in Physics)--United States Naval Postgraduate School, California. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 23). 9

Thesis (M.E.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-96). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Carbon nanotubes exhibit excellent field emission properties and will likely be prime candidates as electron sources in future vacuum electronic applications. Recent research has focused on enhancing field emission from traditional diode-type emitters by adding a gate electrode between the anode and the cathode. Since the gate to cathode (emitter) distance in this triode-type structure is small relative to the anode to cathode distance, this structure allows relatively small gate voltages to significantly enhance or dampen field emission. The key challenge for this research is: synthesizing vertically aligned carbon nanotube field emitters inside arrays of triode-type devices. The most common "top-down", etch-deposit-synthesis method of synthesizing carbon nanotubes inside gated cavities is discussed here, and a novel "bottom-up" method is presented. This new approach bypasses the lithography and wet chemistry essential to the etch-deposit-synthesis method, instead using a dual-beam focused ion beam (FIB) system to mill cavities into a multi-layered substrate. Here the substrate is designed such that the act of milling a hole simultaneously creates the gate structure and exposes the catalyst from which carbon nanotubes can then be grown. Carbon nanotubes are synthesized using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) rather than thermal chemical vapor deposition, due to the superior alignment of the PECVD growth. As dual-beam FIB and PECVD can both be largely computerized, this synthesis method is highly reproducible. The dual-beam FIB also permits a high degree of controllability in gate radius, cavity depth and emitter spacing. The effects of a host of PECVD growth parameters (initial catalyst thickness, gas concentration, growth temperature, temperature ramping rate, chamber pressure, and plasma voltage) were characterized so that the morphology of the carbon nanotube emitters could be controlled as well. This "bottom-up" method is employed to construct functional, large area carbon nanotube field emitter arrays (CNT FEAs). The role of the gate layer in field emission is examined experimentally as well as through theoretical models. Field emission testing revealed that increasing gate voltage by as little as 0.3 V had significant impact on the local electric fields, lowering the turn-on and threshold fields by 3.6 and 3.0 V/µm, respectively, and increasing the field enhancement factor from 149 to 222. A quantum mechanical model of such triode-type field emission indicates that the local electric field generated by a negatively or positively biased gate directly impacts the tunneling barrier thickness and thus the achievable emission current. However, the geometry of triode-type devices (gate height, gate radius, emitter density) can influence the degree to which the gate voltage influences field emission. I demonstrate here an effective method of analytically calculating the effect of various such geometric parameters on the field emission. Results show that gate type (the height of the gate relative the emitter tip) can significantly impact the local electric field and hence the type of applications a device is suitable for. Side gates (gate height < emitter height) induced the highest local electric field, while top gates (gate height > emitter height) provided the greatest controllability. For all gate types, increasing the size of the gate opening increased the local electric field by diminishing the gate-emitter screening effect. However, gate voltages were able to enhance or inhibit the local electric field much more readily with smaller gate radii. Due to the strength of gate-emitter field screening in the triode-type structure, the spacing between emitters had virtually no impact on the local electric field, allowing relatively high emitter densities. These theoretical results, combined with a highly controllable synthesis method, provide valuable information and methodology for those designing and optimizing triode-type devices targeted at specific applications.

No description available.

In this dissertation M02C and diamond films deposited by electrophoresis on flat Mo foils and tips have been studied to determine their suitability as field emission tips.

The foundation of vacuum nanoelectronics was laid as early as in 1961 when Kenneth Shoulders proposed the development of vertical field-emission micro-triodes. After years of conspicuous stagnancy in the field much interest has reemerged for the vacuum nanoelectronics in recent years. Electron field emission under high electric field from conventional and exotic nanoemitters, which have now been made possible with the use of modern day technology, has been the driving force behind this renewal of interest in vacuum nanoelectronics. In the research reported in this thesis self-assembled silicon nanostructures were studied as a potential source of field emission for vacuum nanoelectronic device applications. Whiskerlike protruding silicon nanostructures were grown on untreated n- and p-type silicon surfaces using electron-beam annealing under high vacuum. The electrical transport characteristics of the silicon nanostructures were investigated using conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM). Higher electrical conductivities for the nanostructured surface compared to that for the surrounding planar silicon substrate region were observed. Non-ideal diode behaviour with high ideality factors were reported for the individual nanostructure-AFM tip Schottky nanocontacts. This demonstration, indicative of the presence of a significant field emission component in the analysed current transport phenomena was also detailed. Field emission from these nanostructures was demonstrated qualitatively in a lift-mode interleave C-AFM study. A technique to fabricate integrated field emission diodes using silicon nanostructures in a CMOS process technology was developed. The process incorporated the nanostructure growth phase at the closing steps in the process flow. Turn-on voltages as low as ~ 0.6 V were reported for these devices, which make them good candidates for incorporation into standard CMOS circuit applications. Reproducible I V characteristics exhibited by these fabricated devices were further studied and field emission parameters were extracted. A new consistent and reliable method to extract field emission parameters such as effective barrier height, field conversion factor, and total emitting area at the onset of the field emission regime was developed and is reported herein. The developed parameter extraction method used a unified electron emission approach in the transition region of the device operation. The existence of an electron-supply limited current saturation region at very high electric field was also confirmed. Both the C-AFM and the device characterization studies were modelled and simulated using the finite element method in COMSOL Multiphysics. The experimental results – the field developed at various operating environments – are explained in relation to these finite element analyses. Field enhancements at the atomically sharp nanostructure apexes as suggested in the experimental studies were confirmed. The nanostructure tip radius effect and sensitivity to small nanostructure height variation were investigated and mathematical relations for the nanostructure regime of our interest were established. A technique to optimize the cathode-opening area was also demonstrated. Suggestions related to further research on field emission from silicon nanostructures, optimization of the field emission device fabrication process, and fabrication of field emission triodes are elaborated in the final chapter of this thesis. The experimental, modelling, and simulation works of this thesis indicate that silicon field emission devices could be integrated into the existing CMOS process technology. This integration would offer goods from both the worlds of vacuum and solid-sate nanoelectronics – fast ballistic electron transport, temperature insensitivity, radiation hardness, high packing density, mature technological backing, and economies of scale among other features.

In the quest for reliable, repeatable and stable field electron emission that has commercial potential, whilst many attempts have been made, none yet has been truly distinguishable as being successful. Whilst I do not claim within this thesis to have uncovered the secret to success, fundamental issues have been addressed that concern the future directions towards achieving its full potential. An exhaustive comparison is made across the diverse range of materials that have, over the past 40-50 years, been postulated and indeed tested as field emitters. This has not previously been attempted. The materials are assessed according to the important metrics of turn on voltage, Eon, and maximum current density, Jmax, where low Eon and high Jmax are seen as desirable. The nano-carbons, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), in particular, perform well in both these metrics. No dependency was seen between the material work function and its performance as an emitter, which might have been suggested by the Fowler Nordheim equations. To address the issues underlying the definition of the local enhancement factor, β, a number of variations of surface geometry using CNTs were fabricated. The field emission of these emitters was measured using two different approaches. The first is a Scanning Electrode Field Emission Microscope, SAFEM, which maps the emission at individual locations across the surface of the emitter, and the parallel plate that is more commonly encountered in field emission measurements. Finally, an observed hysteretic behaviour in CNT field emission was explored. The field emitters were subjected to a number of tests. These included; in-situ residual gas analysis of the gas species in the emitter environment, a stability study in which the emitters were exposed to a continuing voltage loop for 50 cycles, differing applied voltage times to analyse the effects on the emitted current, and varying maximums of applied field in a search for hysteresis onset information. These studies revealed the candidate in causing the hysteresis is likely to be water vapour that adsorbs on the CNT surface. A six step model if the emission process was made that details how and when the hysteresis is caused.

No description available.

Tsang Wei Mong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-93). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Contents --- p.v / List of Figure Captions --- p.vi / List of Table Captions --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Theory of Electron Field Emission --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Fowler Nordheim Planar Field Emission Model for Metal --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Goal of this Project --- p.9 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Sample Preparation and Characterization Methods / Chapter 2.1 --- Sample Preparation --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- MEVVA Implantation System --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Implantation Conditions --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Simulation by SRIM --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2 --- Characterization Methods --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- AFM and CAFM --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- RBS --- p.22 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- XPS --- p.24 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- XRD --- p.27 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- TEM --- p.28 / Chapter 2.2.6 --- FE Measurement --- p.29 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- FE Properties of IBS SiC layers / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.31 / Chapter 3.2 --- Field Enhancement Mechanisms for the IBS SiC Layers --- p.32 / Chapter 3.3 --- Embedded Conducting Grains (ECG) Model of Local Field Enhancement --- p.45 / Chapter 3.4 --- The Role of Conducting Grains in Field Enhancement --- p.48 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- FE Properties of W modified IBS SiC layer / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.58 / Chapter 4.2 --- Experimental --- p.59 / Chapter 4.3 --- Phase and Structural Evolution of W Modified IBS SiC Layers --- p.60 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- XRD Results --- p.60 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- XPS Results --- p.64 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- TEM Results --- p.69 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- AFM Results --- p.74 / Chapter 4.4 --- Field Emission Properties --- p.76 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.84 / Reference --- p.86 / List of Publications --- p.94 / Appendix --- p.96

Recently, synthesis of Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) films has received considerable interest. Owing to their similar characteristics of diamonds, such as extreme hardness, chemical stability, and high heat conductivity etc, DLC films are regarded as one of the most promising materials. But the practical applications have been limited due to their high internal stress and insufficient adhesion at the interface between DLC film and substrate. Several methods used to the deposition of Me-DLC films have been proposed. Studies have shown that the internal stress was released and the adhesion also improved by doping metallic element into DLC films. Conventionally, metal incorporation in DLC films were prepared by vapor deposition. The requirement of high vacuum equipment makes the process complicated. Besides, there are many merits in electrodeposition, such as low cost, simplicity of experimental set up, and availability for deposition on complex shapes substrate in large area. In this study, electrodepositing technique was used to synthesize the amorphous Cu-DLC films deposited on ITO substrate, in which the pH value of electrolyte varied, to study the characteristics and the composition of DLC films. According to the I-t curves of deposition, the end of current density was used for the impedance comparison of films. With the addition of Cu, the resistance of the electron transportation in Cu-DLC was reduced, and the awl-shaped surface morphology was observed by AFM measurement, which could enhance the electron field emission properties of thin films. For Raman analysis, the effect of Cu addition would promote the sp2 bonding¡F this result corresponds with the increasing ID/IG value. It indicates that film becomes graphitization due to the addition of Cu and leads the shift of G-peak position toward lower wavenumber. ESCA spectra of C1s and Cu2p indicate no obvious evidence of Cu-C formation. The sp2/(sp2+sp3) ratio increases with the pH value. In addition, we found that Cu-DLC in acidic environmental condition, or doping as [Cu(NH3)n]2+ complex is more conducive to the growth of copper metal in DLC films, and has the lowest optical band gap value deduced by n&k analyzer. Finally, we discussed the thin film growth mechanisms and the characteristic of electron field emission for the applications in the future.