Field-Emission Characteristics of Molded Molybdenum Nanotip Arrays With Stacked Collimation Gate Electrodes

Double-gate field-emission characteristics of metallic field-emitter-array (FEA) cathodes fabricated by molding with stacked collimation gate electrodes with planar end plane are reported. The collimation of field-emission electron beam with minimal reduction of emission current is demonstrated when a negative bias is applied to the collimation gate, whereas when the two electrodes are at the same potential, the emission characteristic of the double-gate device is the same as that of the single-gate device that shows an emission current of ~1 mA from 40 × 40 tip arrays. Results indicate that the device structure of the fabricated double-gate FEAs is promising for high-brilliance cathode applications.