Thickness dependency of field emission in amorphous and nanostructured carbon thin films

Maziar Shakerzadeh, Edwin Hang Tong Teo, Beng Kang Tay

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Thickness dependency of the field emission of amorphous and nanostructured carbon thin films has been studied. It is found that in amorphous and carbon films with nanometer-sized sp2 clusters, the emission does not depend on the film thickness. This further proves that the emission happens from the surface sp2 sites due to large enhancement of electric field on these sites. However, in the case of carbon films with nanocrystals of preferred orientation, the emission strongly depends on the film thickness. sp2-bonded nanocrystals have higher aspect ratio in thicker films which in turn results in higher field enhancement and hence easier electron emission.

Original languageEnglish
Article number286
JournalNanoscale Research Letters
Volume7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics

Keywords

  • Carbon films
  • Field emission
  • Preferred orientation

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