Low voltage electron emission from Pb(ZrxTi1−x)O3-based thin film cathodes

Abstract

Electron emission from ferroelectric thin films (≤1 μm thick) is demonstrated. In addition, electron energy distributions have been measured using an Auger electron spectrometer. The electron emission measurements were performed using ferroelectric cathodes based on this Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 (PZT) films and 80–110 μm Pb0.93La0.07(Z0.53Ti0.47)O3 (PLZT) layered capacitors with Pt top and bottom electrodes. Current densities in the range of 0.5–1.5 mA/cm2 were measured from the PLZT cathodes excited with 100–400 V pulses, which produced electrons of about 265 eV with a narrow energy distribution (full width at half-maximum of about 30 eV). On the other hand, current densities in the range 0.07–0.15 μA/cm2 were measured for thin film PZT-based cathodes excited with pulses in the range 10–40 V. The initial results suggest that the electron emission current may depend, among other factors, on the thickness of the ferroelectric layer, the applied excitation voltage, and the interval between the polarizing and switching pulses.

Electron emission from lead–zirconate–titanate ceramics

“…[5][6][7][8] The use of ferroelectric materials as advanced cathode sources is appealing as they do not easily suffer from atmospheric contamination, operate at room temperature, 1 are reprateable, 9 and have a high enough brightness (10 9 -10 11 A/m 2 rad 2 ) [10][11][12] to be useful as electron beam sources for a variety of microwave devices. 1,2,13 Many other applications have been proposed and are currently being studied, including: triggers for low pressure switches; 14 thin film applications for flat panel display technology; 15,16 and trigger sources for plasma lighting devices. In the remainder of this introduction we shall briefly describe the system under consideration, and outline the new results obtained.…”

Electron emission from ferroelectric plasma cathodes

“…One proposal [50] was a front electrode consisting of unconnected spots within the ring. In other approaches, Cu, W, Au, Ag, Pt, or Al electrodes were deposited onto the dielectric surface by tightly holding down wires [51] or using techniques such as evaporation [42,43], ion-beam sputtering [52], photochemical etching [53], and printing [47]. A detailed study of the electrode issue was carried out in Ref.…”

“…The authors of Ref. [52] used an Auger spectrometer to measure electron energy for the case where a ferroelectric cathode 110 mm thick was excited by positive grid pulses. They reported a narrow energy distribution in the vicinity of 265 eV, which remains the same over trigger voltages of 300 to 400 V. Reference [58] reported on a detailed study of how the triggering regime affects the energy spectrum of electrons.…”

Field emission from nanometer-scale tips of crystalline PbZrxTi1−xO3

“…5,6 Electron field emission from cold cathodes using only large electric fields provides a compact, low-power, room temperature method for generating beams of electrons. [7][8][9][10] Much research has been published on reducing the electric field necessary to emit electrons from a surface. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Improved emitters requiring smaller electric fields would enable field emission in devices with portable, inexpensive power supplies.…”