Electron field emission from multilayered tetrahedral amorphous carbon films

The electron emission switching property of the multilayer structures, which constitute of nitrogen doped tetrahedral amorphous carbon (n⁺-ta-C) film and intrinsic ta-C layer fabricated by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique has been investigated. Low voltage DC bias (9V) was applied between the top and bottom layers in conjunction with the conventional electric field applied between the cathode and anode. It has been demonstrated that by varying the low DC bias polarity, the on-set electric field for the electron emission can be varied by approx. ±6 V/μm compared to the unbiased situation. A possible mechanism for the multilayer field emission and the switching property is proposed.