Fabrication of wedge‐shaped silicon field emitters with nm‐scale radii

Wedge‐shaped field emitters may have some advantages over conical tip emitters as electron sources in vacuum microelectronic devices. A method has been developed to make atomically sharp wedge‐shaped silicon through use of dry etching and dry oxidation. Transmission electron microscopy studies show that silicon wedge emitters can be made with wedge radius and angle at 1 nm and 60°, respectively, by repeated oxidation in oxygen at 950 °C.