A study of electron field emission as a function of film thickness from amorphous carbon films

Abstract

The electron field-emission properties of hydrogenated amorphous carbon and nitrogenated tetrahedral amorphous carbon thin films are examined by measuring the field-emission current as a function of the applied macroscopic electric field. The experimental results indicate the existence of an optimum film thickness for low-threshold electron field emission. The predictions of various emission models are compared to the experimental results.