Low energy cluster beam deposited BN films as the cascade for Field Emission

TL;DR

This study compares atomic and nanostructured BN films prepared by different methods, demonstrating that low energy cluster beam deposited BN films exhibit superior field emission properties, making them promising for electron emission applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel low energy cluster beam deposition method for BN films and shows its advantages over traditional atomic deposition in field emission performance.

Findings

CBN starts emission at lower electric fields than ABN

CBN achieves higher electron emission current at lower voltages

Cluster-deposited BN shows potential as a substitute for traditional field emission cascades

Abstract

The atomic deposited BN films with the thickness of nanometers (ABN) were prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering method and the nanostructured BN films (CBN) were prepared by Low Energy Cluster Beam Deposition. UV-Vis Absorption measurement proves the band gap of 4.27eV and field emission of the BN films were carried out. F-N plots of all the samples give a good fitting and demonstrate the F-N tunneling of the emission process. The emission of ABN begins at the electric field of 14.6 V/{\mu}m while that of CBN starts at 5.10V/{\mu}m. Emission current density of 1mA/cm2 for ABN needs the field of 20V/{\mu}m while that of CBN needs only 12.1V/{\mu}m. The cluster-deposited BN on n-type Silicon substrate proves a good performance in terms of the lower gauge voltage, more emission sites and higher electron intensity and seems a promising substitute for the cascade of Field Emission.