Articles you may be interested inField emission properties of individual zinc oxide nanowire field emitter J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 26, 983 (2008); 10.1116/1.2919146 High-current-density field emission from multiwalled carbon nanotubes by chemical-vapor deposition with effective aging treatment Emission stability of a field emitter array observed by an emission microscope Argon inclusion in sputtered films and the effect of the gas on molybdenum field emitter arraysAs an approach to improve the stability and reliability of molybdenum field emitters with rough surfaces and impurities at tip apex, electrical aging was studied on the basis of the important tip heating mechanism, Nottingham heating, in dc and pulse mode. The effects of electric field in dc mode were investigated using single tips to avoid the averaging effect commonly arising in arrays. The fluctuations of emission currents were remarkably reduced after the exposure to high electric field ͑ϳ100 MV/cm͒. It was responsible for surface migration and impurity desorption at tip apex achieved under high electric field. Since the continuous exposure to high electric field can bring undesirable effects such as tip failures, electrical aging in pulse mode was also investigated. As the peak voltage of pulse was increased, the fluctuation of emission current was rapidly reduced. From the electrical aging experiments for a 0.7 in. field emission display ͑FED͒, it was proven that the poor uniformity of FED could be considerably improved by electrical aging.

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As an approach to improve the stability of.molybdenum field emitters with rough surfaces and impurities at tip apex, electrical aging was studied on the basis of the important tip heating mechanism, Nottingham effect, under DC bias and pulse. The poor stability was remarkably improved using the change of tip temperature controlled by the electric field applied to tip.