Non-thermionic cathodes-solid state electron emitters based on GaN and LaB/sub 6/

Author

Akinwande, A.I. ; Horning, R.D. ; Ruden, P.P. ; Arch, D.K. ; Johnson, B.R. ; Heil, B.G. ; King, J.M.

Author_Institution

MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

1997

fDate

10-10 Dec. 1997

Firstpage

729

Lastpage

732

Abstract

We report the first experimental demonstration of a GaN cold cathode emitter that uses bandgap engineering to achieve low voltage, room-temperature and durable emission from a flat surface. The device consists of a GaN pn junction and a thin layer of LaB/sub 6/. The device achieves effective negative electron affinity by injecting electrons from the conduction band of a p-type wide bandgap semiconductor into vacuum through an intermediary low workfunction material.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; cathodes; electron affinity; electron field emission; energy gap; gallium compounds; lanthanum compounds; p-n junctions; vacuum microelectronics; wide band gap semiconductors; work function; GaN-LaB/sub 6/; bandgap engineering; cold cathode; conduction band; electron injection; flat surface; low voltage room temperature emission; negative electron affinity; nonthermionic cathode; p-type wide bandgap semiconductor; pn junction; solid state electron emitter; vacuum microelectronics; work function; Aluminum gallium nitride; Cathodes; Electron emission; Electron guns; Gallium nitride; Microelectronics; Optical materials; P-n junctions; Solid state circuits; Spontaneous emission;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices Meeting, 1997. IEDM '97. Technical Digest., International

Conference_Location

Washington, DC, USA

ISSN

0163-1918

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4100-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEDM.1997.650486

Filename

650486