Local field-emission characteristic of individual AlN cone fabricated by focused ion-beam etching method

Highly (0 0 2)-oriented AlN film was deposited on n-type (1 0 0)-oriented silicon substrates by the radio frequency magnetron sputtering method. An individual AlN cone with high aspect ratio was fabricated by the focused ion-beam (FIB) etching process in the surface of an as-formed AlN film. This etching method can easily control the tip radius and height to obtain AlN cones with different aspect ratios. The field-emission property of the individual AlN cone was measured in a scanning electron microscopy system equipped with a movable probe as the anode above the AlN tip. The results indicated that the as-formed single AlN cone with high aspect ratio possessed good field-emission ability although it only had a tiny emission area. Compared with a single Si tip fabricated by the same method, a single AlN cone exhibits better field-emission ability, and hence, has great potential as a promising candidate of point electron source for application in vacuum electronic devices.