Increased emission efficiency of gated cold cathode with carbonic nano-pillars

Carbonic field emitter material produced from organic films such as photoresists and polyimides, is a very attractive candidate for application in large-area field-emission displays (FEDs). In this paper we describe improvements in the fabrication yield and emission efficiency of a gated cold cathode whose emitter is made up of nano-pillars of carbonic material. We have found that the low-density porouslike-structure photoresist film causes structural damage of the device and this leads to an increase in leakage current. The film density can be significantly improved by Ar-ion-beam irradiation, which contributes to the complete fabrication of the device. After the complete fabrication, the electron emission efficiency was markedly improved from 0.1% to 50%. Electric breakdown voltage was also improved. Field electron emission from the 4 × 4 matrix gated cold cathode is demonstrated.