Hard carbon field emitters for flat panel displays

Goal was to determine the field emission of laser-ablated hard carbon coatings. The coatings, deposited on Mo tip arrays, were found (with ion field emission microscope) to have excellent Fowler-Nordheim behavior: plots of the logarithm of emission current divided by voltage squared vs inverse of voltage are linear. This indicates the tips are operating as field emitters. Field emission current of as-coated tip arrays was lower than uncoated tips; this disagrees with observations in literature. Hydrogen plasma cleaning was studied. Cleaned, laser-ablated carbon coatings of field emission tips have two benefits: the emission current increases at fixed voltage, and stability of the emission increases. These results would be advantageous for field emission flat panel displays.