Extremely environment-hard and low work function transfer-mold field emitter arrays

► Extremely environment-hard a-C FEAs were fabricated by using transfer-mold method. ► The a-C film had low work function of 3.6 eV and sp3 fraction of 85.6%. ► Field-emission characteristics depend on work function and morphology of the FEAs. ► The chemical states of FEAs with oxygen radical treatment were studied on UPS. ► The emission fluctuation of a-C FEAs was as low as ±5.0% with radical treatments.