Insight into the field-induced surface deformation of Si nanoapex and the achieving of highly reliable gated Si nanoemitters

We report the field-induced surface deformation of Si nano-apex and the achieving of highly reliable gated Si nanoemitters. It was found that the crystalline Si nano-apex deformed to amorphous structure at a low macroscopic field (~0.6 V/nm) with an extremely low emission current (~1 pA). First-principle calculations showed that the arsenic donor would increase the electric polarization on the Si nano-apex surface, thus form the higher electrostatic force to induce the deformation. Diamond like carbon coating was used to lower the emission threshold field as well as decrease the electric polarization rate in the arsenic doped Si nano-apex. Highly reliable gated Si emitters array (40×40) with typical current density of ~254.53 mA/cm² (229.08 μA at a gate voltage of 118.40 V) was obtained.