ABSTRACT
Fluorinated DLC films were deposited via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique on glass and silicon substrates. The precursor gas used was acetylene and for fluorine incorporation hydrofluoric acid dissolved in methanol was used. The at.% of fluorine in the films was varied from 0% to 15.3% as measured from energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The chemical binding was investigated by XPS studies. AFM studies showed that the increase of surface roughness with fluorine percentage. We have studied electron field emission from F:DLC thin films for a fixed anode-sample separation of 100 microm for different F at.% in the films. The threshold field was found to vary from 8.5 to 2.9 V/microm with a variation of fluorine at.% in the films 0% to 15.3%. The threshold field and field enhancement factor are calculated and we have tried to explain the emission mechanism there from. It was found that the threshold field and effective emission barrier were reduced by F doping than undoped DLC.
