Ultra-low turn-on field emission devices characterized at atmospheric pressures and high temperatures

Recent work on in-plane nanoscale field emission devices operating at atmospheric pressures highlights the promise of these devices for high-frequency applications if challenges in reliability and robustness can be mastered. We demonstrate a novel fabrication technique using silicon on insulator substrates to reliably produce sub-20 nanometer gaps between deposited emitter and collector metals in symmetric two-terminal field emission devices. Our emitters demonstrate repeatable, low voltage emission across a range of metals. By reducing the operating voltages through miniaturization, our devices can operate at atmospheric pressures without deterioration through erosive bombardment from ionized gas atoms. Furthermore, the devices are shown to operate at temperatures as high as of 215C in vacuum atmosphere.