Directional solidification of eutectic alloys yields various kinds of in situ composites with interesting and excellent properties, among which the semiconductor-metal eutectic with three-dimensional array of Schottky junctions grown in the composite is useful in electronic applications. This paper reports the experimental research on the Si/TaSi2 rodlike eutectic composite for field emission. By the Czochralski crystal growth technique, the composite with highly oriented TaSi2 fibres embedded in the (111) monocrystal n-type Si matrix is obtained. The average fibre diameter is 1.79 mu m, the average fibre spacing is 10.0 mu m and the average fibre density is 9.25 x 10(5)/cm(2). The fibre distribution characteristic is. also studied. The TaSi2 fibres with hexagonal crystal structure present various cross-section shapes. Furthermore, the, composite is preferentially etched to form the cone-shaped TaSi2 field emission array protruding above the Si matrix and the field emission property measurement shows that the turn-on field is about 4.4 MV/m which is quite well. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.