Development of in situ analyzer of field emission devices

The characteristics of field emission devices operated in low-vacuum state, for example in field emission display (FED), fluctuate depending on the variation of surface state of the field emitter. Therefore, the analysis of the property of field emission devices by Fowller-Nordheim plot (FN plot) is generally difficult. In order to analyze field emission devices precisely, the authors proposed the way of analysis by Seppen-Katamuki chart (SK chart) in the work of Gotoh et al. (1996). In the SK chart, the ordinate is the slope of FN plot and the abscissa is the intercept of FN plot in the work of Ishikawa et al. (1993). The authors confirmed that the characteristics of a field emitter are distributed linearly in the SK chart in the work of Gotoh et al. (2004). In this research, the authors have been developing in situ analyzer of field emission devices in order to investigate the origin of fluctuation in field emission characteristics on the SK chart. For this purpose, simultaneous recording of the FN characteristics and field emission microscopy (FEM) image is necessary. The present report describes simultaneous recording of the characteristics of field emitter and FEM images.