2018 journal article
Electron field emission from Q-carbon
DIAMOND AND RELATED MATERIALS, 86, 71–78.
author keywords: Q-carbon; Field emission; Pulsed laser deposition; Laser annealing; Raman spectroscopy
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
3. Good Health and Well-being
(Web of Science)
Source: Web Of Science
Added: August 6, 2018
We report field electron emission investigations in Q-carbon composite structures formed by pulsed laser annealing of amorphous carbon layers. Under the optimum fabrication conditions, a dense microstructured morphology of Q-carbon was obtained, which is important for local electric field enhancement in field-emission device applications. The turn-on field required to draw an emission current density of 1 μA/cm2 is found to be 2.4 V/μm. The Q-carbon films show good electron emission stability as a function of time up to 4 h. The microstructure and morphology of the field emitting Q-carbon films was analyzed by a variety of techniques, including field emission scanning electron microscope, Raman spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy. Our results show a very high emission current density value of ~30 μA/cm2 at an applied electric field of 2.65 V/μm, which is hysteresis-free and stable. The generated emission current has been found to have low fluctuations (<4%) and shows no generation of defects during repeated emission measurements on the sample. Our findings thus hold a great promise for the development of Q-carbon films in applications ranging from field emitters and frictionless motors to heterostructures for novel micro and nano-electronic devices.