Electron emission from silicon tips coated with sol-gel (Ba0.67Sr0.33)TiO3 ferroelectric thin film

Electron emissions from arrays of silicon tips coated with barium strontium titanate (BST) (Ba0.67Sr0.33)TiO3 ferroelectric thin film have been investigated. Sol-gel technique was used to prepare the (Ba0.67Sr0.33)TiO3 ferroelectric solution. A conformai and stable (Ba0.67Sr0.33)TiO3 thin film coating of ∼30 nm on silicon tips was achieved by spin coating and thermal annealing. Silicon tips coated with BST ferroelectric film show considerable improvement in electron emission. The coated tips have low turn-on electric fields ranging from 4 to 10 V/μm, which are significantly lower than that of the uncoated silicon tips with turn-on electric field of ∼70 V/μm. Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) plots of the emission data confirm that the emission conformed to F-N emission behavior and indicate that the coated silicon tips have a lower work function than the uncoated silicon tips. Sol-gel ferroelectric thin film coating is an efficient and practical way to improve silicon tip emission behavior. © 2007 American Vacuum Society.