THREE-DIMENSIONALLY STRUCTURED SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE FOR A FIELD EMISSION CATHODE, MEANS FOR PRODUCING SAME, AND FIELD EMISSION CATHODE

摘要

The group of inventions relates to the field of highly efficient field emission electron sources capable of being used in electron microscopes, ultra high frequency vacuum devices, x-ray tubes, light sources, ion beam charge compensators and other applications. The technical result consists in the possibility of producing, in a simple way, a three-dimensionally structured semiconductor substrate, having optimal parameters, for producing a field emission cathode with characteristics which provide for the creation of a high efficiency field emission cathode on the basis of such a substrate. The method for producing a substrate for a field emission cathode involves forming three-dimensional structures out of silicon with the help of photoelectrochemical etching. The electrolytes used for etching the silicon can be aqueous or non-aqueous. Moreover, the structures produced are in the form of micropoints or a quasi-regular cell cluster structure formed as an accumulation of cone-shaped channels of various shapes and sizes ranging from a few microns to a few hundred microns. Various types of lamps can be used as the light source, such as halogen lamps, ordinary incandescent lamps, sodium lamps and fluorescent lamps. It is also possible to use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and lasers. The key distinction of substrates produced in such a way for a field emission cathode is that, in growing nanocarbon films with high emission characteristics on the surface of said substrates, there is no need to additionally treat the surface of the silicon prior to the growth of the field emission structures.