Effect of diamond-like carbon coating on the emission characteristics of molybdenum field emitter arrays

Abstract

We have studied the electron emission characteristics of Mo field emitter arrays (FEA's) using a diamond-like carbon (DLC) film deposited by a layer-by-layer technique using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The turn-on voltage was lowered from 55 to 30 V by a 20-nm thick hydrogen-free DLC coating and maximum emission current was increased from 166 to 831 mu A. Also the gate voltage required to get the anode current of 0.1 (mu A/emitter) decreases from 77 to 48 V. Furthermore, the emission current from DLC coated Mo FEA's is more stable than that of noncoated Mo FEA's.