Field emission properties of silicon carbide and diamond-like carbon DLC/films made by chemical vapour deposition techniques

Chemical vapour-deposited CVD.amorphous silicon carbide a-SiC.and diamond-like carbon DLC.thin films were realised on p-type silicon field emitter arrays FEAs.in order to investigate their field emission properties. The FEA geometry was investigated by scanning electron microscopy SEM., the film morphology by scanning force microscopy SFM.and by SEM, and the film structure by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS.. Field emission properties of FEAs were determined in high vacuum conditions. a-SiCrp-Si in comparison with DLCrp-Si emitter arrays have higher current emission at lower external fields. The upper limits of the field emission current densities were 2.4 mArcm2 for an electric field of 25 Vrmm in the case of SiC and 0.8 mArcm2 for the electric field of 42 Vrmm in the case of DLC films. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved