Enhancement on diamondlike carbon coated planar electron field emission array using Au-precoating

The electron emission characteristics of planar field emission arrays FEAs., containing diamondlike carbon DLC.films as emitters, were investigated. Precoating an Au layer on Si prior to the deposition of DLC films further improves the emission properties of FEAs. A high emission current capacity as 0.5 mArcm2 has been achieved, which corresponds to a large emission current density as 44 mArcm2 for DLC films in the emitting dots. However, preannealing the Au-coating at 5008C 30 min.is necessary to improve the characteristics of film-to-substrate interface and the DLC films’ electron field emission properties. q1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved