Field electron emission from bunchy flake-like nano-carbon films

This paper reports that bunchy flake-like nano-graphite crystallite films (BNGCFs) were deposited on Si substrates by using the microwave chemical vapour deposition technique. Furthermore the BNGCFs were characterized by x-ray diffraction spectra, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectra and field emission (FE) I--V measurements, and a lowest turn-on field of 1.5 V/\mu m, and a high average emission current density of 30 mA/cm^2 at a macroscopic electric field of 8.0 V/\mu m were obtained. The J--E data did not follow the original Fowler--Nordheim (F--N) relation since they were not well represented in the F--N plot by a straight line. A model considering the F--N mechanism, and the statistic effects of FE tip structures has been applied successfully to explain all the FE data observed for E<8.8 V/\mu m.