Field emission spectroscopy from field-enhanced diffusion-growth nano-tips

We have found a new formation procedure of nano-tips, namely field-enhanced diffusion-growth (FDG) method. This method has the advantage of forming the nano-protrusion at room temperature, which is quite different from the conventional method by Binh et al. With field ion microscope, we confirmed that the tip was terminated with either a few atoms or the less in the end. The field emission (FE) electrons from the nano-tips converged to a single spot, and the FE current was very stable. The FE spectra consist solely of well-separated peaks. These features are similar to the conventional ones. However, we have found that the FE current and the shape of FE spectrum were so sensitive to the atomic arrangement of the nano-protrusion that the site-shift of only a few atoms caused drastic change in emission characteristics.