Emission stability of a diamond-like carbon coated metal-tip field emitter array Enhancement of emission characteristics for field emitters by N-doped hydrogen-free diamond-like-carbon coating J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 17, 246 (1999); 10.1116/1.590507 Field emission of nitrogen doped diamondlike carbon films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition J.

Dense ensembles of silicon nanowires were prepared by metal-catalyzed chemical vapor deposition on silicon substrates. Some of these ensembles were doped with phosphorus during growth. The nanowires were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and mass spectroscopy. Field emission of electrons from these structures was studied at room temperature in ultrahigh vacuum. The measurements were carried out using a parallel-plate diode cell. At high applied fields, the current-voltage characteristics deviate from the Fowler-Nordheim law and exhibit a stepwise increase of the current with increasing voltage at 300K.

The main requirements to electron field emission cathodes are their efficiency, stability and uniformity. In this work we combined the properties of porous silicon layers and diamond-like carbon (DLC) film to obtain emission cathodes with improved parameters. The layered structures of porous silicon and DLC film were formed both on flat n-Si surface and silicon tips created by chemical etching. The conditions of the anodic and stain etching of silicon in HF containing solution under the illumination have been widely changed. The influence of thin (≤10nm) DLC film coating of the porous silicon layer on electron emission has been investigated. The parameters of emission efficiency such as field enhancement coefficient, effective emission areas and threshold voltages have been estimated from current-voltage dependencies to compare and characterize different layered structures. The improvement of the emission efficiency of silicon tip arrays with porous layers coated with thin DLC film has been observed. These silicon-based structures are promising for flat panel display applications.