ELECTRON FIELD-EMISSION OF AMORPHOUS-CARBON FILMS

The field emission propel-ties of amorphous carbon prepared by a stand ard filtered cathodic are process and by an electron cyclotron resonan ce plasma sputter process were investigated. Field emission (FE) chara cteristics were measured using plane emitter stripes and a fluorescent screen with 60 mu m spacing. Vacuum are discharge was found to activa te FE in most cases. After activation, stable FE started at an applied voltage of 250 V for the filtered are films and 170 V for the ECR fil ms. Current densities up to 1 mA/mm(2) at 450 V were achieved. Because of the field enhancement, emission always took place at the edges of the emitter. Amorphous carbon films prepared by ECR plasma sputtering showed better FE characteristics. They contained small amounts of nitr ogen up to 1.7 at. %. Best emitting films had an N-content of 0.6 at. %. A FED demonstrator with a 50 x 50 pixel array (25 x 25 mm(2)) was f abricated. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.