Emission Enhancement by Surface Modification of Reticulated Vitreous Carbon (RVC)

Argon ion radiation, applied through a shadow mask, is used to induce modifications at the surface of reticulated vitreous carbon in an effort to improve field emission properties. Bond structure and other surface features were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance. Results show that emission characteristics of treated samples demonstrate marked improvement over non-irradiated samples, possibly due to changes in the types of bond present at the surface