Electron Field Emission Characteristics of Planar Field Emission Array with Diamondlike Carbon Electron Emitters

Abstract

The electron emission characteristics of planar field emission arrays (FEAs), containing undoped and boron-doped diamondlike carbon (DLC) films as emitters, were investigated. The planar DLC FEAs require only 13.3 V/µm to turn on the electron field emission, whereas the boron-doped planar DLC FEAs requires an even lower electric field (9.8 V/µm) to trigger the electron emission. The boron-doped DLC films also possess an electron emission property highly superior to that of the undoped DLC films and exhibit a stable electron emission current of 938 µA under a 20 V/µm bias voltage, which corresponds to a high emission current density of ( J e ) B-DLC =128 mA/cm 2 . These superior properties suggest that the boron-doped DLC FEAs are potentially useful as electron emitters in flat panel displays.