Field Electron Emission from Caterpillar-Like Clavae Nano-Structure Carbon Thin Films

• Published in: Chinese physics letters Vol. 27; no. 8; pp. 222 - 224
• Main Author: 王丽军 朱玉传 王小平 章诗 刘欣欣 李怀辉 梅翠玉 刘晓菲
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.08.2010
• Subjects: Current density; Density; Electric fields; Electron emission; Emission; Nanocomposites; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Thin films; 光学显微镜; 卡特彼勒; 场发射扫描电子显微镜; 场致电子发射; 电流密度; 碳薄膜; 等离子体辅助; 纳米结构
• ISSN: 0256-307X; 1741-3540
• DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/27/8/087901

Nano-carbon films with large density of caterpillar-like clavae are synthesized by microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition using a mixture of methane and hydrogen gases on Mo film substrates. The films are characterized by Raman spectra, optical microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy. Field electron emission measurements of nano-carbon films are also carried out to show the turn-on field as low as 1.5 V/μm and the high current density of 2.2mA/cm^2 at electric field of 5.TV/μm, the uniformly distributed emission site density from a broad well-proportioned emission area of about 4.0cm^2 is also obtained. The field- emission current density J versus macroscopic electric field E does not follow the original Fowler-Nordheim （F-N） relation since they are not well represented in the F-N plot by a straight line. A modified F-N relation is applied successfully to explain all the field-emission data observed for E 〈 6.0 V/μm.