Field emission from diamond-like carbon films and fabrication of gated diamond-like carbon film emitter

The emission from diamond-like carbon (DLC) films has been studied. The DLC films were prepared by sputtering a carbon target with Ar ions and collecting the carbon clusters on an indium tin oxide (ITO) film. The DLC films prepared this way exhibited a stable and reproducible emission. We also fabricated a gated field emitter using the DLC film as a cathode. The simple process consisted of the deposition of DLC, insulating, and gate layers, followed by back-etching of an array of holes until the DLC film at the bottom was exposed. The onset voltage of the completed DLC triode was 50 V and a stable anode current was achieved.