The existing methods of fabricating low-field cathodes do not permit the development of device structures that comply with the requirements of developers of systems. In this work, large-area field-emission cathodes with homogeneous emission properties of the working surface and low working voltages (<1 kV) are considered. A Spindt cathode with a number of silicon microtips up to 6000 and a packing density of ~1 × 105 cm–2 is investigated. Titanium nitride and carbon films are deposited onto microtips using the electric-arc method. It is shown that the cathode has low emission homogeneity due to the problem of reproducing microtips of the same shape and size. A cathode based on a microchannel plate with channels 6 μm in diameter, inside which graphite-like nanostructures are formed by the electric-arc method, is fabricated. It is found that an increase in the electron flux in the channels of a microchannel plate can result in a considerable decrease in the operating voltage (<1 kV) and attain high emission homogeneity at the highest admissible output current.

The phase composition of the 3 nm surface layer of Ti and TiN films is studied by X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy. The films are deposited by the electric arc sputtering of a titanium cathode in a nitrogen atmosphere under a magnetic field. It is shown that the film surface layer contains TiN, TiN x , TiO x , TiO2, and TiN x O y phases. A mechanism explaining the formation of titanium nitride films is proposed.

A method is proposed to form graphene films using thermodiffusion of carbon atoms from an amorphous carbon or silicon-carbon film with a nanosized thickness through a catalyst film, their accumulation at the catalyst layer/barrier layer interface, and the subsequent carbon quasi-liquid-graphene phase transition. One of the advantages of this method of producing graphene films is the possibility of their formation directly on a dielectric layer and the subsequent suspension of a graphene film over the substrate surface using membrane technologies, which excludes the necessity of using complex procedures to separate a graphene film from the substrate.

Graphene layers on device structures have been formed from amorphous carbon and silicon-carbon films using a sequence of technological procedures, including thermodiffusion of carbon atoms, their accumulation at the heteroboundary between layers with significantly different diffusion coefficients, and subsequent phase transition from a carbon quasi-liquid to graphene layer.

Представлены результаты экспериментального исследования влияния магнитного поля на структурно-морфологические особенности углеродных пленок, осажденных методом электродугового распыления графита. Установлено, что при воздействии на плазменный поток магнитного поля получается практически гладкая аморфная пленка. Однако магнитное поле не предотвращает образование в пленке графитоподобных нанокластеров ( 4 вес. %), наличие которых является причиной автоэлектронной эмиссии электронов при низкой пороговой напряженности поля 7.5 В/мкм.