The preparation of Al-containing amorphous carbon nanotip arrays and their excellent field emission properties

► Large scale Al containing amorphous carbon nanotip arrays with uniform size and high density were obtained through filtered cathodic arc plasma technique via a specially widened anodic aluminum oxide pore arrays as templates. ► The content of sp3 increased with the increased content of Al containing in the amorphous carbon film. ► The threshold field decreased to 0.32 V/μm at 10 mA/cm2 and the maximum emission current density increased to 72 mA/cm2 at Al content of 6.38 at%.