Field emission studies of amorphous carbon deposited on copper nanowires grown by cathodic arc plasma deposition

The field emission properties of amorphous carbon/copper nanowire (CuNW)/Si composites have been investigated. The CuNWs (50–80 nm in diameters) were deposited anodically within the pores of a porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) nano-template by electrolysis of a CuSO4-H2SO4 solution at room temperature using DC current. Two kinds of structure, amorphous carbon/Si and amorphous carbon/CuNWs/Si, were used. Both of them can emit electrons in vacuum towards an anode at a very low turn-on field. Field emission from the amorphous carbon/CuNWs/Si shows a fourfold decrease in turn-on field compared with the amorphous carbon/Si. Results indicated that the electrons were emitted under the effect of an enhanced field because of the geometry of the amorphous carbon sample.