  In their rocksalt structure, rare-earth monosulfides offer a more stable
alternative to alkali metals to attain low or negative electron affinity when
deposited on various III-V and II-VI semiconductor surfaces. In this article,
we first describe the successful deposition of Lanthanum Monosulfide via pulsed
laser deposition on Si and MgO substrates and alumina templates. These thin
films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy,
high resolution transmission electron microscopy, ellipsometry, Raman
spectroscopy, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and Kelvin probe
measurements. For both LaS/Si and LaS/MgO thin films, the effective work
function of the submicron thick thin films was determined to be about 1 eV from
field emission measurements using the Scanning Anode Field Emission Microscopy
technique. The physical reasons for these highly desirable low work function
properties were explained using a patchwork field emission model of the
emitting surface. In this model, nanocrystals of low work function materials
having a <100> orientation perpendicular to the surface and outcropping it are
surrounded by a matrix of amorphous materials with higher work function. To
date, LaS thin films have been used successfully as cold cathode emitters with
measured emitted current densities as high as 50 A/cm2. Finally, we describe
the successful growth of LaS thin films on InP substrates and, more recently,
the production of LaS nanoballs and nanoclusters using Pulsed Laser Ablation.
