A method is provided for preventing electron emission from a sidewall (34) of a gate electrode (20) and the edge (28) of the gate electrode stack of a field emission device (10), the gate electrode (20) having a surface (24) distally disposed from an anode (40) and a side (26) proximate to emission electrodes (38). The method comprises growing dielectric material (22) over the surface (24) and side (26) of the gate electrode (20), and performing an anisotropic etch (32) normal to the surface (24) to remove the dielectric material (22) from the surface (24) and leaving at least a portion of the dielectric material (22) on the side (26) of the gate electrode (20) and edge (28) of the gate electrode stack.