Local work function of transition metal nitrides and carbides measured by Kelvin probe force microscopy

In this paper, we investigate transition metal nitrides and carbides, which are promising as a high performance field emission material because of a high melting point, chemical inertness, and high resistance against ion bombardment. Using KPFM, we simultaneously measure the topography and the distribution of the local work function of these polycrystalline films fabricated by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) and radio frequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS) techniques.