Fabrication and characterization of bulk molybdenum field emission arrays

This paper reports a simple technology for fabricating high aspect ratio (>10) field emission tips directly in molybdenum substrate by fluorine inductive-coupled-plasma (ICP) etching for the first time. Compared to the traditional Spindt array, the film interface is eliminated, and the device exhibits a low turn-on electric field of 1.21V/µm. Arrays of 1,000,000 tips with 10µm pitch are employed to emit currents of 140µA at electric field strength of 5.48V/µm. A stable, uniform emission was observed in a field emission display. With better conductivity and thermal conductivity, the Mo-FEAs are very promising for long-term and continuous emission.