Electron field emission of amorphous carbon films

The field emission propel-ties of amorphous carbon prepared by a standard filtered cathodic are process and by an electron cyclotron resonance plasma sputter process were investigated. Field emission (FE) characteristics were measured using plane emitter stripes and a fluorescent screen with 60 mu m spacing. Vacuum are discharge was found to activate FE in most cases. After activation, stable FE started at an applied voltage of 250 V for the filtered are films and 170 V for the ECR films. Current densities up to 1 mA/mm(2) at 450 V were achieved. Because of the field enhancement, emission always took place at the edges of the emitter. Amorphous carbon films prepared by ECR plasma sputtering showed better FE characteristics. They contained small amounts of nitrogen up to 1.7 at. %. Best emitting films had an N-content of 0.6 at. %. A FED demonstrator with a 50 x 50 pixel array (25 x 25 mm(2)) was fabricated. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.