Fabrication and characterization of various carbon-clad silicon microtips with ultra-small tip radii

In order to take advantage of diamond and carbon coatings on flat-panel displays, unscratched sharp Si microtip arrays have been carburized based on the bias enhanced nucleation (BEN) and low-pressure MPCVD deposition to obtain an ultra-sharp carburized Si FEAs. The tip radii of these BEN-carburized Si tips can be reduced below 300 /spl Aring/ under low deposition temperature (<550/spl deg/C). Furthermore, some BEN-carburized samples were further deposited by normal diamond growth conditions to form the ultra-sharp DLC-clad Si FEAs with enhanced emission ability.