The reproducibility of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology makes it very promising for creating commercially available vacuum emission micro/nanoelectronic devices. However, there are a number of challenges that occur with CMOS, including current hysteresis, transition to the generation of self-sustained plasma, and thermal melting of the cathode. These issues affect the process of field-electron emission and lead to instability and subsequent degradation of field-emission cathodes. More detailed study is needed in order to address these negative effects. In this study, an array of nanoscale silicon needle-type cathodes and a single blade-type cathode were placed in vacuum to characterize their field-emission properties. The hysteresis nature of the field-emission current and the smooth transition from field emission to the generation of self-sustained plasma in the interelectrode space were simultaneously observed. Based on these experimental results, the authors propose the possible origins and mechanisms underlying these two phenomena. It was theoretically found that at field-emission currents corresponding to the observed melting point of the silicon nanocathodes, the melting point of silicon is not reached, which indicates the need to take into account additional effects of field emission, such as sputtering of the anode material. The results are useful for developing field-emission nanodevices based on silicon CMOS technology.

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