A formation of cobalt silicide on silicon field emitter arrays by electrical stress

A novel process utilizing electrical stress is proposed for the formation of Co silicide on single crystal silicon (c-Si) FEAs to improve the field emission characteristics. Co silicide FEAs formed by electrical stress (ES) exhibited a significant improvement in turn-on voltage and emission current compared with c-Si FEAs. The improvement mainly comes from the lower effective work function of Co silicide and less blunting of tips during silicidation by electrical stress in an ultra high vacuum (UHV) environment less than 10/sup -8/ torr.