Abstract
The work presented involves the generation of oxygen plasma species at low pressure utilizing an Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma reactor, and their interactions with micron- and nano-sized iron films (M-Fe and N-Fe film respectively) prepared using ethyl cellulose processed at high temperature. A specially designed radiation heater (RH) was used to raise the surface temperature of the film rapidly, exactly at the film interface, where the plasma species interact with the surface. As a result of the interaction of oxygen plasma species and temperature, iron is oxidized to different polymorphs depending on the operating pressure and hence oxygen gas flow rate. The phase, as well as the morphology of the film was controlled by monitoring the oxygen flow rate using the unique Plasma-Assisted Thermal Oxidation (PATO) process. Different polymorphs, viz., Fe3O4, γ-Fe2O3, α-Fe2O3 and different morphologies, such as polygonal, compact facets, wire-like (1D) nanostructures at the surface were obtained for the films processed using PATO. The selected PATO-processed films were investigated for Field Electron Emission (FEE) properties. The 1D-grown surface of iron oxide obtained from the M-Fe film showed a turn-on field of 3 MV m−1 and emission current of 337 μA cm−2, whereas the pyramidal surface morphology obtained using N-Fe film gives a turn-on field of 3.3 MV m−1 with an emission current of 578 μA cm−2.
Highlights
IntroductionThe presently used Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma reactor is a modi ed version of the 1st generation ECR plasma reactor that was reported earlier[20] with detailed diagnostics of the ECR plasma system for the spatial distribution of plasma properties, mainly the electron temperature (Te), plasma density (ne), etc., using a Langmuir probe
Plasma, especially non-thermal plasma, has been used in the medical,[1] textile[2,3] and food processing[4,5,6] industries for more than a decade for sterilization, effluent treatment, surface cleaning, etc
The results demonstrate that the plasma treatment time was a sensitive parameter for de ning the bone cell proliferation.[21]
Summary
The presently used ECR plasma reactor is a modi ed version of the 1st generation ECR plasma reactor that was reported earlier[20] with detailed diagnostics of the ECR plasma system for the spatial distribution of plasma properties, mainly the electron temperature (Te), plasma density (ne), etc., using a Langmuir probe. Looking at the eld emission properties of nanostructures grown on surfaces, researchers have reported that carbon nanotubes are excellent eld emitters.[24,39] onedimensional (1D) materials like carbon nanotubes require prolonged treatment at high temperatures and the eld emission current (performance) is degraded with time due to surface oxidation. To overcome this problem, various stable metal oxide nanomaterials like.
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