Composite Au-Si micro-tip field emitter arrays produced by self-organized laser-induced process

In this paper, a new type of self-organized Si micro-tip arrays was designed by introducing a gold coating during laser-assisted ablation of Si wafers in vacuum to improve the emission properties of the arrays. The results showed that the typical emission current limit for the Si/Au arrays was improved compared with recently studied Si or Ni micro-arrays. On the other hand, a macroscopic surface uniformity of the tips height and sharpness is not sufficient to achieve perfect emission uniformity for the emission arrays. So future improvement could be made by incorporation of carbon nanotubes into a surface layer of Si/Au micro-tips.