Field emission, morphological and mechanical properties of variety of diamond-like carbon thin films

The effect of nitrogen incorporation and sandwich titanium and copper layers, on field emission, morphological and mechanical properties of diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films is explored. The introduction of foreign element (N₂) and sandwich Cu and Ti layers changed the amorphous morphology to nanostructured, reduced the stress, enhanced the hardness (except N₂ incorporated DLC film) and improved the field emission (except Ti/DLC bilayer) of modified DLC films. The associated versatile electrical and mechanical properties of modified DLC film made it a material of great utility in the development of field emission display panels and also lead to its application as a hard and protective coating on cutting tools, automobile parts etc. It is important to mention that DLC-based electronic materials may replace currently used soft electronic materials (such as Si) due to their enhanced stability under high energy radiation.