Thermal plasma treatment of tin for the enhancement of field emission properties

In the present study, the effect of treatment with Ar thermal plasma on the compositional, morphological, and field emission properties of Tin (Sn) has been investigated. For this purpose, Sn has been treated for different exposure times ranging from 2.5 to 20 min at a constant Ar flow rate of 10 L/min. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis identifies no new phase formation. However, the crystallite size of plasma treated Sn goes on increasing upto 15 min and then decreases for treatment time of 20 min. Whereas, vice versa is true for dislocation line density. The anomalous trends are observed for stress and strain measurements of plasma treated Sn. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis of thermal plasma treated Sn reveals the formation of ridges, cones, droplets, cavities, voids and pores at different treatment times. The work function varies from 4.38 to 5.05 eV for different treatment times. The Field Emission (FE) parameters such as maximum current density (Jmax), turn on field (Eo) and field enhancement factor (beta) are enhanced and come out to be in the range of 564 nA/cm2 to 2522 nA/cm2, 4 V/mu m to 11 V/mu m and 2600 to 4520 respectively. The density of surface structures, field enhancement factor (beta), turn on field (Eo) and maximum current density (Jmax) are correlated with work function of thermal plasma treated Sn. The structured surfaces of Sn are highly beneficial for various applications like FE-SEM as well as LCD displays.