Growth of in situ CoSi2 layer by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on Si tips and its field-emission properties

We prepared Si emitters coated with a metalorganic chemical vapor deposited CoSi2 layer to improve emission properties. The CoSi2 layer was grown in situ by reactive chemical vapor deposition of cyclopentadienyl dicarbonyl cobalt at 650 °C. The CoSi2 layer was conformally deposited on the Si emitter tips and had a twinned structure at the epitaxial CoSi2/Si interface in the partial region. The CoSi2-coated Si emitters showed an enhanced emission due to the increase in the number of emitting sites from the Fowler–Nordheim plot. The fluctuation of emission current was reduced by the CoSi2 coating. But the long-term stability was not much improved, which may be due to the decrease of the field enhancement factor and the number of emitting sites of the CoSi2-coated Si tip.