Extraction of the Very High Tunneling Current and Extremely Stable Emission Current from GdB 6 /W‐Tip Source Synthesized Using Arc Plasma

Herein, we report the one step arc plasma synthesis of the GdB 6 (Gadolinium hexaboride) nanoparticles and its field emission (FE) characteristics on tungsten point substrate (GdB 6 /W). The SEM / TEM analysis revealed the GdB 6 nanoparticles on W point substrate exhibit irregular shaped, grainy, dense, course morphology, i. e. uniformly covering the entire tip substrate surface. For GdB 6 /W point source, the values of the turn‐on and threshold fields, defined as field required to draw an emission current density ∼1 mA/cm 2 and ∼100 mA/cm 2 , respectively are found to be ∼ 2.2 and ∼2.7 V/μm, for anode‐cathode separation of ∼1 mm. Interestingly, a very high emission current density of ∼3.5 A/cm 2 has been drawn from the GdB 6 /W point emitter at relatively lower applied field of ∼6.4 V/μm. The field enhancement factor found to be ∼10,250. The GdB 6 /W point electron source exhibits a good emission current stability at ∼10 mA for a period of 6 hr. The emission current stability is enumerated in terms of standard deviation and its magnitude has been measured to be only 1.72 % with respect to the average value. The superlative field emission characteristics signify the GdB 6 /W point electron source as potential candidates for vacuum micro/nanoelectronics device applications.