Enhanced field emission properties of PECVD synthesized chlorine doped diamond like carbon thin films

Chlorine doped diamond like carbon (DLC) has been deposited for the first time on both Si and glass substrate by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using acetylene and carbon tetrachloride as the source for carbon and chlorine respectively. The Chlorine concentration is varied from 0% to 3.63% as confirmed by X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. The pure and doped samples were characterized by Atomic Force Microscopy, UV–vis–NIR spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy. The electron field emission properties of all the pure and doped samples have been studied in high vacuum field emission set up and it is seen that the field emission properties of the DLC sample have been considerably improved after chlorine was added to it. The doped sample shows good field emission stability with turn on field as low as 4.75 V/μm for highest Chlorine concentration. The dependence of field electron emission on inter-electrode distances was studied for three different inter-electrode distances. The enhanced field emission characteristics have been explained in terms of dielectric inhomogeneity induced field enhancement in sp2–sp3 bonded mixed carbon network.