| AVS 54th International Symposium | |
| Nanometer-scale Science and Technology | Thursday Sessions |
| Session NS-ThP |
| Session: | Nanometer-Scale Science & Techology Poster Session II |
| Presenter: | T.-M. Chen, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan |
| Authors: | T.-M. Chen, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan J.-Y. Hung, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan F.-M. Pan, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan L. Chang, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan S.-C. Wu, National Nano Device Laboratories, Taiwan |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) has been widely used as a template for fabrication of nanostructured materials. In this study, we fabricated highly ordered TiN nanopillars on the Si substrate as electron field emitters using the AAO as the template. The nanopillars showed satisfactory field emission properties because of the high aspect ratio of the nanostructure and a low work function of TiN. To prepare the AAO template, an Al film 2 µm thick was first thermally evaporated on a sputter-deposited TiN layer of 500 nm in thickness. The Al film was anodically oxidized in an oxalic acid electrolyte at room temperature, and the as-prepared AAO pore channels had a pore diameter about 60 nm. During the preparation of the AAO pore channels, the underlying TiN layer was anodically oxidized as well in the late stage of the AAO anodization, forming titanium oxide nanodots. The TiOx nanodots were then used as the hardmask for dry-etching the underlying TiN layer, thereby transferring the AAO hexagonal arrangement pattern to the TiN layer leading to the formation of the well-ordered TiN nanopillar array. The nanopillars were ~200 nm in height and ~50 nm in diameter. The TiN nanopillar field emitter had a turn-on voltage of < 5V/µm, which was defined as the voltage at which the field-emission began to exhibit linear Fowler-Nordheim field emission characteristics.