Amorphous Carbon Nanotip Arrays Prepared By Filtered Arc Plasma

This thesis focused on the preparation of amorphous carbon nanotip arrays for excellent field emission cathode material by a unique combination of the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template and filtered cathodic arc plasma (FCAP) technology. The preparation of well ordered AAO template, the control of the pore diameter and the shape of the template channel were carefully described and studied. The preparation of amorphous carbon nanotip arrays and their properties were analyzed too. This thesis mainly consists of the following parts:1. The field emission theory and its application in the flat panel display (FPD) were introduced along with carbon based material and their field emission properties. Also, the low temperature plasma, cathode arc source, and magnetic filter technology were presented. And the FCAP equipment with a 60°duct used in this work was introduced in detail, improvement has been made to ensure the stability of the experiment and made it controllable, which made the preparation of amorphous carbon nanotip arrays realizable.2. AAO template was widely used to synthesize all kinds of nano-material in a lot of research area both domestic and overseas. The structure models and formation models of AAO template were introduced in detail. AAO template with ordered nanopore arrays and parallel channels with uniform diameter perpendicular to the template surface was prepared in oxalic acid electrolyte by the common two-step preparation, the prepare methods and parameters were studied carefully. The pore diameter was obviously enlarged by pore widen process. By studying the influence of the widen process, AAO template with pore channels of multi-step stair structure which have alterable diameter was prepared.3. Via the combination of the AAO template and FCAP technology, the deposition process of carbon ions was carried out at room temperature. From the result of the deposition, we analyzed the influence of the inhomogeneous distribution of anion species in AAO template on carbon ions during deposition. AAO template with specially widened anodic aluminum oxide pore opening was prepared by multi-steps employing the anodization process and pore-widening treatment alternately. The disadvantageous effect of the anion impurities distributed in the AAO template was avoided; amorphous carbon nanodot arrays were successfully prepared through FCAP technique, the field emission properties were studied.4. Amorphous carbon nanotip arrays with different height were attempted by adjusting the anodization time and widening time. We studied and analyzed the influence of the depth of the widened pore opening and prepared amorphous carbon nanotip arrays with higher tips.The Field emission properties of the nanodot and nanotip arrays were investigated. All of them exhibited excellent emission property. With the increase of the nanotip height, field emission properties were improved.