Field Assisted Electron Emission from Novel Self Aligned Multilayered Nanocarbons Grwon at Flexible Substrates

Summary form only given. Field assisted electron emission from nanostructured carbon materials is becoming increasingly attractive. The interest stems from the feasibility of diverse applications, which include field emission displays, electron-beam lithography, electron and ion guns, multitude of sensors, electron microscopes and microprobes, low & medium power microwave sources and lamps. Based on the present understanding of the carbon based field emitters, we may broadly define the requirements for field emission or the main factors influencing emission as a) field enhancement factor, b) highly conducting sp² bonded (pi bond) nanostructured carbon, in it´s various manifestations c) the presence of sp³ bonded (sigma bond) material in the sp² matrix and d) optimum emission site density distribution, taking into consideration factors such as shielding or overlapping of field, which could inhibit or limit emission. Taking into consideration the above, proposed is a novel, room temperature grown, self aligned carbon based multilayered electron emitter, suitable for most vacuum microelectronic applications. Discussed in this paper is a possible emission mechanism for such an electron emitter. Also presented is some of the experimental results of field assisted electron emission from such an electron emitter deposited on flexible substrates like polyamide. These emitters exhibit emission threshold fields, as low as 5-10 V/mum for a current density of 1 muA/cm²