Enhanced electron field emission from plasma-nitrogenated carbon nanotips

Abstract

Competition of nitrogen doping and graphitization effect for field electron emission from nanocrystalline diamond films J.Electron field emission from amorphous carbon nitride synthesized by electron cyclotron resonance plasma Nitrogenated carbon nanotips (NCNTPs) are synthesized by plasma-enhanced hot filament chemical vapor deposition from the hydrogen, methane, and nitrogen gas mixtures with different flow rate ratios of hydrogen to nitrogen. The morphological, structural, compositional, and electron field emission (EFE) properties of the NCNTPs were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, x ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and EFE high-vacuum system. It is shown that the NCNTPs deposited at an intermediate flow rate ratio of hydrogen to nitrogen feature the best size/shape and pattern uniformity, the highest nanotip density, the highest nitrogen concentration, as well as the best electron field emission performance. Several factors that come into play along with the nitrogen incorporation, such as the combined effect of the plasma sputtering and etching, the transition of sp 3 carbon clusters to sp 2 carbon clusters, the increase of the size of the sp 2 clusters, as well as the reduction of the work function, have been examined to interpret these experimental findings. Our results are highly relevant to the development of the next generation electron field emitters, flat panel displays, atomic force microscope probes, and several other advanced applications. V C 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Structure- and composition-dependent electron field emission from nitrogenated carbon nanotips

“…The turn-on field is defined as the electric field, where the F-N curve departs from a straight line. 12 From the F-N curves, the turn-on field is about 2.6, 2.1, and 2.8 V/lm for specimens (A)-(C), respectively. As shown in Fig.…”

“…10 This is why the carbon nanotips are highly-promising for the development of the next-generation field-emitting devices and the study of their EFE properties remains a highly-topical issue in recent years. 6,[10][11][12][13] However, the relations between the EFE properties of the carbon nanotips and their structural and compositional properties still remain poorly understood. For example, it was reported 13 that the work function and the field enhancement factor of the carbon nanotips are 5 eV and 3365, respectively.…”

Comparative study on catalyst-free formation and electron field emission of carbon nanotips and nanotubes grown by chemical vapor deposition

“…[4]. Here, the substrate was heated using a heating system composed of three hot tungsten filaments in the CVD system.…”

“…1 and 2 indicate that the carbon nanotips and nanotubes are grown from carbon film depending on temperature, which are related to the ion bombardment and diffusion at different temperatures. During the growth of carbon nanotips and nanotubes, the reactive gases are ionized by plasma into the carbonaceous ions (such as CH 3 + , CH 2 + ) and the etching ions including nitrogenous and hydrogen ions (such as N + , NH + , H + ) [4,16]. When these ions bombard with the carbon film, the etching ions play a role in sputtering-etching of the carbon film deposited on silicon substrate, while the carbonaceous ions play a role in carbon deposition.…”

“…In last decades, low dimensional carbon-based materials such as carbon nanotubes, polymer nanofibers, carbon nanotips and graphene have attracted much attention due to their novel structures and extensive applications in the areas of nanoelectronic and nanophotonic devices, biology and medicine [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. When the carbon-based carbon nanomaterials are applied, they must be free of metal particles to meet the requirements of some properties.…”