Emission properties of DLC films on Si substrates

DLC films were deposited on polished both n-type and p-type silicon substrates. The silicon resistivity was ∼0.02 Θ cm. Some of the DLC films 20 nm thick were deposited on the n-type Si surface with the submicron cones. SEM and Raman spectroscopy were used for structural investigations. Field electron emission occurs after dielectric breakdown, except for the samples with Si cones for which the emission seems to originate from SiC formed during the first stage of electron emission. It seems that too much sp2 graphite phase may give rise to the observed increase in the turn-on field from 50 V/μm up to 150 V/μm.