Electron Emission Through Tetrahedral Amorphous Carbon Coatings on Mo and Si Emitters

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe field emission properties of molybdenum and silicon emitter coated with tetrahedral amorphous carbon (or amorphous diamond) were studied. The tetrahedral amorphous carbon was deposited by laser ablation and showed a uniformly coated columnar structure over the entire emitter. In general, current conditioning improved stability and increased the current density. Coatings of ta-C on Mo emitters with and without nitrogen incorporated both yielded significantly higher emissivity than uncoated emitters. Nitrogen incorporation reduced the effective workfunction and the sp3/sp2 ratio. However similar depositions on Si emitters reduced the emissivity, and may be attributable to the residual oxide at the ta-C/Si interface. Annealing in a hydrogen atmosphere enhanced emissivity from both ta-C/Mo and ta-C/Si emitters. In general, thick coatings lowered the emissivity and the slope of the I-V curves. A temperature dependence of emission was observed only in the low field regions.