Fabrication and characterization of various carbon-clad silicon microtips with ultra-small tip radii.

Abstract

In order to take the advantages of diamond and carbon coating on flat-panel display, unscratched sharp Si microtip arrays have been carburized based on the bias enhanced nucleation (BEN) and low-pressure MPCVD deposition to obtain an ultra-sharp carburized Si FEAs. The tip radii of these BEN-carburized Si tips can be reduced below 300 Angstrom under low deposition temperature (<550 degrees C). Furthermore, some BEN-carburized samples were further deposited by normal diamond growth conditions to form the ultra-sharp DLC-clad Si FEAs with enhanced emission ability.