Research on the field emission mechanism of nano-structured carbon film

The field emission (FE) characteristics of nano-structured carbon films (NSCFs) are investigated. The saturation behaviour of the field emission current density found at high electric field E cannot be reasonably explained by the traditional Fowler—Nordheim (F—N) theory. A three-region E model and the curve-fitting method are utilized for discussing the FE characteristics of NSCFs. In the low, high, and middle E regions, the FE mechanism is reasonably explained by a modified F—N model, a corrected space-charge-limited-current (SCLC) model and the joint model of F—N and SCLC mechanism, respectively. Moreover, the measured FE data accord well with the results from our corrected theoretical model.