Non-lithographic Nanocolumn Fabrication with Application to Field Fmitters

摘要

A non-lithographic method of fabricating high-density arrays of nanometer-scale vertical columns was investigated. The use of oblique deposition techniques allows the fabrication of isolated vertical columns in a single-step evaporation process without the need for either pre- or post-deposition lithographic processing. Extreme oblique incidence deposition with computer controlled substrate motion was utilized to fabricate columns with diameters near 100 nm and densities exceeding 10~9 columns/cm~2. The desired column geometry may be engineered through choice of deposition angle and substrate spin rate. In one potential application of these microstructures, arrays of vertical columns were fabricated from silicon and carbon and tested for field emission characteristics. Further studies were made on the use of ion milling to modify the tips of the nanocolumns in order to improve the field emission properties.