Nanocrystalline graphite: Promising material for high current field emission cathodes

Electron field emission properties of nanocrystalline graphite (NCG) films, grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method on conductive Si substrates without using of any catalyst, were investigated. Current-voltage characteristics were measured in pulse-periodic regime. It was shown that grown NCG films can operate at field emission current density up to 10 A/cm2. It was found that NCG films contain, along with the normally oriented to the substrate nanoflakes, carbon whiskers consisted of graphene nanoribbons and nanowires with length considerably higher than of the nanoflakes.