Enhancement of electron field emission stability by nitrogen-doped diamond-like carbon film coating

摘要

The current fluctuation at electron field emission (EFE) can reach 100% (especially in regions of small currents) and therefore represents a significant disadvantage of cold emission microcathodes. In this paper, we analyse the mechanisms of the EFE fluctuations and methods that are capable of substantially decreasing electron FE instability. The experiments and methods described for characterization of EFE fluctuation clearly demonstrate that coating cathodes with N-doped DLC-thin film, prepared in optimized technology regimes, leads to a decrease in the fluctuation to values of less than 10%. A decrease of emission current fluctuation with the growth of DLC film thickness to 60-100 nm has been observed.