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Field emission properties and surface structure of nickel containing amorphous carbon

  • G. Y. Chen*
  • , J. S. Chen
  • , Z. Sun
  • , Y. J. Li
  • , S. P. Lau
  • , B. K. Tay
  • , J. W. Chai
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Nanyang Technological University
  • Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Nickel containing amorphous carbon (a-C:Ni) films have been deposited by filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique by introducing pure nickel into the graphite target. The field electron emission property of a-C:Ni was improved when compared to that of pure tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) by FCVA. The emission threshold field of a-C:Ni film is about 5 V μm -1 , whilst the threshold field of the ta-C film is about 13 V μm -1 . Raman spectroscopy suggests that the sp 2 clusters in the carbon film increase both in size and number when Ni is introduced. However, the emission was found to degrade to threshold fields beyond 20 V μm -1 after the a-C:Ni film was left in ambient for a week. This observation is attributed to surface absorption of oxygen on the a-C:Ni film, as determined by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)185-190
Number of pages6
JournalApplied Surface Science
Volume180
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 16 Aug 2001
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Amorphous carbon (ta-C)
  • Indium-tin-oxide (ITO)
  • Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C)

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