A Study on the Correlation between Raman Response and Field Emission Characteristics in Case of Various Low Field Emitting Nano Carbons

Summary form only given. Various forms of carbon including nanodiamond, nanotubes, nanohorns, nanofibers, nanocluster or nanostructured carbon are being studied as materials for diverse applications including energy storage, nanoelectronics and vacuum nanoelectronics. Many of these materials have been shown to be very low field electron emitters. The change in the sp³ and sp² bonding ratio in these materials defines the material. Presented in this paper is a comparative study of low field electron emission from nanocarbons including nanodiamond, nanotubes, nanowalls and nano cluster carbon films grown using diverse processes, such as the thermal CVD, hot filament CVD, DC plasma CVD, pulsed laser assisted cluster beam assembly and cathodic arc. Most of these films exhibit low field electron emission of around 1 V/mum for an emission current density of around 1 muA /cm², when measuring using samples of emission area around 1 cm². Discussed further in this paper is the correlation between the field emission properties and the Raman response characteristics of the material. This is to see if an indication of an empherical relation between Raman response (a non invasive, instantaneous measuring tool for nanostructured materials characterization) and field emission can be established