Field Emission from GaN Self-Organized Nanotips

GaN self-organized nanotips were applied to the cold cathode field emitter, which was fabricated by reactive ion etching (RIE). Field emission from the GaN nanotips was observed for the first time. The microscopic current I through the anode hole (φ=20 µm) at the anode electrode was 0.1 nA at 900 V. The field enhancement factor β d , which is related to the top structure of the emitter and is the product of the field conversion factor β and the sample-anode gap d , was estimated to be 300 from the Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) plot. The microscopic current I was stable at 12.5 nA for 3600 s from the onset of voltage application (standard deviation 0.64 nA).