NanoTOOLS GmbH

Nanoemitters (NEs) are a promising replacement for electron sources in producing field emission CD-SEMs and CDTEMs.So far, NEs have been fabricated by, e.g. carbon nanotubes or nanowhiskers of conductive materials.Here, we present a new method to manufacture NEs using electron beam induced processing (EBIP) - a method well established in the nanofabrication of super sharp probes for scanning probe microscopy - and show their unique performance.NEs manufactured by EBIP combine a high d., diamond-like carbon core (HDC/DLC) with high aspect ratio and tip sharpness, and a highly conductive coating.The EBIP process allows for the batch-fabrication of NEs at larger scales with desired sharpness, shape, mech. stability and conductivityNEs, which can easily be mounted into existing SEM/TEM assemblies, have been operated for > 5.000 h without any sign of degradation at a comparatively constant beam current of 3 μA, wherein maximum current oscillations of 10% occurred, while current oscillations were less than 3% over a time span of several minutes.Due to the cold operating temperature and small tip radius, the resolution improved up to 30% compared to a standard Schottky thermal field emitter.The improvement is significant in the low voltage range below 5 kV.