Abstract
The field emission characteristics from an n-type Si field emitter formed by focused ion beams (FIB) milling process were investigated. The n-type Si emitter was sharpened by circularly scanned Ga+ ions to reduce the radius apex to about 10 nm. The emission characteristics from the emittr were strongly affected by the annealing temperature. The slope of Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) plots and pre-exponential factor of F-N equation were small without annealing process. Both of them increased remarkably with increases in the annealing temperature. The F-N plots of the emitter annealed at 670°C showed slight saturation tendency at high applied voltage region, which was commonly observed from p-type Si emitter. After field evaporation of the emitter surface, the slope of the F-N plots had an inclination to become a linear.
