Study of the ability to field emission from diamond-like carbon layers and carbon nanotubes

The aim of this work was to study the relationship between parameters of the electron field emission and the film deposition method. In this study two methods were applied: classical radio frequency plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (RF PACVD) to produce diamond-like carbon (DLC) layers and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to produce carbon nanotubes (CNT). DLC layers were grown on n-type silicon substrates and CNT were grown on n-type and p-type silicon substrates.Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy were used to investigate the physical and chemical parameters of DLC films after deposition process. The electrical parameters of capacitors with the DLC layer as an insulator were extracted from the capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. Measurements of the field emission were performed after characterization of the layer properties.