Fabrication and properties of nitride field emitter.

采用元素金属针氮化的方法制备了NbN、Nb2N、TiN和ZrN的场致发射体。氮化是通过在氨气中加热金属针来进行的。在操作场发射器之前，它们被闪光加热几秒钟。它们的场发射特性随闪光温度的升高而变化。起初，当前的波动基本上是阶梯式和尖峰式的。当闪光温度高于一定的温度时，NbN发射体的场发射模式发生了变化，呈现出随机的变化。在所考察的氮化物发射体中，经过900ﾟC闪光加热的NbN发射体表现出最稳定的场发射电流。结果表明，氮化物发射体在较低温度下闪光加热时发射性能稳定，说明氮化物发射体表面的氮素缺乏对发射体的稳定运行起着重要作用。

Field emitters of NbN,Nb_2N,TiN,and ZrN were fabricated by nitriding elemental metal needles. The nitriding was carried out by heating metal needles in an ammonia gas.Before operating the field emitters, they are flash heated for several seconds. Their field emission properties changed with the increase of the flashing temperature. At the beginning the current fluctuation was fundamentally step-and spike-like. However, it changed to random-like when flashed higher than a certain temperature where field emission patterns changed.The NbN emitters, which had been flash heated at 900ﾟC,showed the most stable field emission current among the nitride emitters examined here.It is revealed by using of AES (Auger Electron Spectroscopy) that the field emission properties are largely affected by the concentric components at the emitter surface. Deficiency of nitrogen degrades the emission properties very much and occurred due to a flash heating higher than a temperature where the change of the emission pattern was observed.It is concluded that the nitride emitters gave stable emission when flash heated at a relatively low temperature, suggesting that the deficiency of nitrogen at the emitter surface does the important role in the stable operation.