We show here successful large-area growth of triangular-shaped ZnO nanoplate arrays on silicon substrates and the investigation of their electron field emission properties. The special geometric-shaped nanoplate emitters have a very large surface area for heat dissipation and large field enhancement factors. These lead to very stable and low-threshold field emission. The fluctuations of the macroscopic current density are less than 1.5%. The threshold macroscopic field is about 4.3 V µm−1 at an emitter–anode gap of 525 µm. The stable electron field emission is ascribed to low local heating effects, originating from the superior heat dissipation ability and the low Joule heating of the sheet-like emitters. Plotting Fowler–Nordheim curves yields straight lines with small deviations at low and high macroscopic fields. The origins of these deviations are discussed. Our experiments demonstrate a promising design for stable and efficient emitters.

In modern particle accelerators, the build-up of electron cloud is a main limiting factor for the achievement of high-quality beam. Among the techniques to mitigate it, coating the internal walls of the beam pipes with a thin film which has a low secondary electron yield (SEY) is considered to be one of the most effective means. From several earlier studies, it was found that diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films are potential coatings. This paper is mainly about the research on secondary electron emission characteristics of DLC thin films. The secondary electron emission (SEE) tests were done at temperature of 298 K and vacuum pressure of 2 × 10–9 Torr. Here, we obtained the characteristics of the SEE from DLC film coatings with different thickness under ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) conditions. The maximum secondary electron yield (SEY), δmax, of the DLC thin films under different primary electron doses were also obtained, respectively.