Field emission current from protrusion structures formed by helium plasma with various impurity gases

Rod-like protrusion structures were formed on tungsten by helium plasma exposure with various impurity gases seeded as nitrogen (N
2
) and argon (Ar). Surface morphology observations and field emission current measurements were done for two samples. Cross-section observation shows that the inside of the protrusions was solid but not porous like conventional fuzz. Therefore, a new formation mechanism which is different from fuzz can be considered. The field emission current from N
2
-seeded case was slightly higher than that from fuzz, but much lower than that from NTBs, while the field emission current from Ar-seeded case was similar to that from NTBs. The difference in field emission current could be due to the different morphology of the tips between two samples.