Ar plasma treatment on few layer graphene sheets for enhancing their field emission properties

Abstract

Plasma treatment in Ar gas on few layer graphene sheets (FLGSs), synthesized by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition, has been performed for enhancing their field emission properties. The plasma etching treatment for 3 min on the FLGSs, forming an extremely sharp edge, decreases the turn-on electric field from 3.91 to 2.23 V µm −1 , and increases the maximum emission current density, drawn at a field of 4.4 V µm −1 , from 33 to 1330 µA cm −2 . It is expected that plasma treatment provides an efficient way to improve the field emission properties of FLGSs.