Nanometer-Scale Surface Features of the Carbon Film Drastically Improving Field Emission Characteristics
It has been reported by many research groups that field emission (FE) from a sort of carbon-related materials show very low threshold fields even though the tips are not so sharp, where Fowler-Nordheim analysis indicates much lower effective work functions than real ones. This is called low-macroscopic field (LMF) emission and may open a possible new approach to low-cost field emitters with superior performance. Since all the proposed macroscopic models cannot explain the peculiar features, microscopic investigation on the LMF emission is required to clarify the mechanism 1,2. In this paper, by using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) including FE current imaging, we have microscopically observed the arc discharge-prepared carbon films 3 showing LMF emission features 4. We have also examined the defect-induced highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface 5 as a well-defined reference.
Masahiro Sasaki Yoichi Yamada
Institute of Applied Physics, University of Tsukuba 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8573, Japan
国际会议
2010 8th International Vacuum Electron Sources Conference and NANOcarbon(第八届真空电子源和纳米碳国际会议)
南京
英文
67-68
2010-10-14（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）