Formation of extremely high current density LaB6 field emission arrays via e-beam deposition

In this paper, we report a Spindt-type field emission array (FEA) with LaB6 as the emitting material. The LaB6 emitters were deposited by e-beam evaporation with low oxide content. As LaB6 in its vapor form is active and absorbs large quantity of residual gases, which oxidizes the LaB6 films, a special e-beam configuration was designed to ensure high evaporation rate which is essential for depositing pure phase LaB6. FEAs with LaB6 emitter tips exhibited an average emission current as high as about 0.23 μA/tip suggesting that LaB6 emitters are promising candidates for high current density vacuum electronic devices.