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

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Abstract

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 (β) are enhanced and come out to be in the range of 564 nA/cm2 to 2522 nA/cm2, 4 V/µm to 11 V/µm and 2600 to 4520 respectively. The density of surface structures, field enhancement factor (β), 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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Advanced Studies in Physics, Institute of Physics, Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan

    Syed Muhammad Kamran Shabbir, Shazia Bashir, Mahreen Akram, Khaliq Mahmood, Sajid Ali, Muhammad Ammar Afzal, Muhammad Hamza, Muhammad Arif Mehmood & Munim Sarwar

  2. Department of Physics, Institute of Physics, Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan

    Shazia Bashir

  3. Department of Physics, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

    Muhammad Shahid Rafique

  4. Centre of Excellence in Solid State Physics, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan

    Shahzad Naseem & Saira Riaz

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  1. Syed Muhammad Kamran Shabbir
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Contributions

SMKS: The work is actually MPhil research work of Syed Muhammad Kamran Shabbir who performed whole experiment and wrote paper. SB: SB is supervisor of Syed Muhammad Kamran Shabbir who planned and designed this whole research work of this manuscript and contributed a lot. MA: MA is co-supervisor of this research work. She helped a lot for field emission measurements. MSR: Helped to designing and fabricate Thermal plasma set-up. KM: Helped for successful experimental set-up. SN and SR: Both helped to perform work function measurements. SA, MAA, MH, MAM and MS: They are collaborators for experimental set-ups of thermal plasma and field emission.

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Correspondence to Shazia Bashir.

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Shabbir, S.M.K., Bashir, S., Akram, M. et al. Thermal plasma treatment of tin for the enhancement of field emission properties. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 2244 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-11564-7

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