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<article article-type="research-article" dtd-version="1.3" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xml:lang="en"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">najo</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title xml:lang="en">Nanosystems: Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics</journal-title><trans-title-group xml:lang="ru"><trans-title>Наносистемы: физика, химия, математика</trans-title></trans-title-group></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="ppub">2220-8054</issn><issn pub-type="epub">2305-7971</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Университет ИТМО</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id custom-type="elpub" pub-id-type="custom">najo-975</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Research Article</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="section-heading" xml:lang="en"><subject>OTHERS</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="section-heading" xml:lang="ru"><subject>OTHERS</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>Field electron emission from a nickel-carbon nanocomposite</article-title><trans-title-group xml:lang="ru"><trans-title></trans-title></trans-title-group></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes"><name-alternatives><name name-style="western" xml:lang="en"><surname>Protopopova</surname><given-names>V. S.</given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="en"><p>Saint Petersburg</p></bio><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff-1"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes"><name-alternatives><name name-style="western" xml:lang="en"><surname>Mishin</surname><given-names>M. V.</given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="en"><p>Saint Petersburg</p></bio><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff-1"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes"><name-alternatives><name name-style="western" xml:lang="en"><surname>Arkhipov</surname><given-names>A. V.</given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="en"><p>Saint Petersburg</p></bio><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff-1"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes"><name-alternatives><name name-style="western" xml:lang="en"><surname>Krel</surname><given-names>S. I.</given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="en"><p>Saint Petersburg</p></bio><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff-1"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes"><name-alternatives><name name-style="western" xml:lang="en"><surname>Gabdullin</surname><given-names>P. G.</given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="en"><p>Saint Petersburg</p></bio><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff-1"/></contrib></contrib-group><aff-alternatives id="aff-1"><aff xml:lang="en">Saint Petersburg State Polytechnic University<country>Russian Federation</country></aff></aff-alternatives><pub-date pub-type="collection"><year>2014</year></pub-date><pub-date pub-type="epub"><day>15</day><month>08</month><year>2025</year></pub-date><volume>5</volume><issue>1</issue><fpage>178</fpage><lpage>185</lpage><permissions><copyright-statement>Copyright &amp;#x00A9; Protopopova V.S., Mishin M.V., Arkhipov A.V., Krel S.I., Gabdullin P.G., 2025</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2025</copyright-year><copyright-holder xml:lang="ru">Protopopova V.S., Mishin M.V., Arkhipov A.V., Krel S.I., Gabdullin P.G.</copyright-holder><copyright-holder xml:lang="en">Protopopova V.S., Mishin M.V., Arkhipov A.V., Krel S.I., Gabdullin P.G.</copyright-holder><license license-type="creative-commons-attribution" xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" xlink:type="simple"><license-p>This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.</license-p></license></permissions><self-uri xlink:href="https://nanojournal.ifmo.ru/jour/article/view/975">https://nanojournal.ifmo.ru/jour/article/view/975</self-uri><abstract><p>The field-emission properties of nanocomposite films comprised of 10 – 20 nm-sized nickel particles immersed in a carbon matrix were investigated. The films were deposited onto silicon substrates by means of a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method. The composite’s structure was controlled via deposition process parameters. Experiments demonstrated that the composite films can efficiently emit electrons, yielding current densities of up to 1.5 mA/cm2 in electric fields below 5 V/µm. Yet, good emission properties were only shown in films with low effective thickness, when nickel grains did not form a solid layer, but left a part of the substrate area exposed to the action of the electric field. This phenomenon can be naturally explained in terms of the two-barrier emission model.</p></abstract><kwd-group xml:lang="en"><kwd>Amorphous carbon</kwd><kwd>Nanocomposite</kwd><kwd>Thin film</kwd><kwd>Field electron emission</kwd></kwd-group><funding-group xml:lang="en"><funding-statement>The work was supported by the Russian ministry of education and science (grant No. 11.G34.31.0041) and by the RFBR (grant 13-02-92709).</funding-statement></funding-group></article-meta></front><back><ref-list><title>References</title><ref id="cit1"><label>1</label><citation-alternatives><mixed-citation xml:lang="ru">Okotrub A.V., Bulusheva L.G., et al. Field emission from products of nanodiamond annealing. Carbon, 42, P. 1099–1102 (2004).</mixed-citation><mixed-citation xml:lang="en">Okotrub A.V., Bulusheva L.G., et al. Field emission from products of nanodiamond annealing. 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