FORMATION AND FIELD EMISSION CHARACTERISTICS OF AMORPHOUS AND CRYSTALLINE Si NANOARRAYS

Highly ordered crystalline and amorphous Si nanoarrays have been formed by using self-assembled monolayer of polystyrene nanospheres as a template followed by dry ion etching treatments. The template was removed by annealing at 8°C and pattern transfer process was revealed by atomic force microscopy. It was shown that the ordered Si nanotips with a height about 70–80 nm and an average lateral size around 150 nm can be obtained. Field emission with low threshold electric field (<10 V/μm) was demonstrated for both samples which can be attributed to the enhancement of local field due to the existence of surface nanostructures. Our results provide a simple and cheap way to make Si field emitters.