Influence of Annealing on Electron Field Emission from AlN Films Prepared by RF Reactive Sputtering
热退火对射频反应溅射氮化铝薄膜场电子发射的影响

Aluminium nitride(AIN) thin films were deposited by RF reactive sputtering and characterized with XPS and XRD. The influence of thermal annealing on the electron field emission characteristics of the AIN coating on Si substrate was investigated. The results show that the annealing treatment of the films is a prefer approach to improve the emission stability and has a remarkable effect on the turn-on voltage and hysteresis of the emission. It is suggested that the mechanism of these effects could be attributed to that the variation of emission properties of the films may arise from the change of surface electron affinity and conductivity due to the change of impurities and defects density in the films during annealing treatment at various temperatures.