Field emission property of SiC thick film deposited at low temperature by DC magnetron sputtering

The amorphous SiC thick films were successfully fabricated on P-type M<100> oriented silicon substrates at comparatively low temperature via DC magnetron sputtering deposition using a sintered SiC target with different DC power of 80 W, 100 W, 120 W, and 150 W. The deposition argon pressure was constantly at 2.0 Pa. The as-grown SiC films were characterized by using X-ray diffraction, Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and profilometer. The low turn-on field of about 3.5V/ mum obtained from the field-emission property measurement at an anode-sample separation of 200 mum shows that SiC films are competitive candidates for field-emission-based vacuum microelectronic devices.