A remarkably low turn-on field of about 1 V/&mgr;m has been observed in electron field emission from planar SiC/Si heterostructures formed by high dose C implantation into Si using a metal vapor vacuum arc ion source. An implant energy of 35 keV was used to a dose of1.0×1018ions/cm2with subsequent annealing in nitrogen at 1200 °C for 2 h. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that a thin surface stoichiometric SiC layer, with a thickness of about 150 nm, had been formed. Atomic force microscopy showed that there are densely distributed small protrusions formed on the surface. The formation of a thin surface stoichiometric SiC layer and the formation of densely distributed small protrusions on the surface are believed to be the two factors responsible for the efficient electron field emission.©1998 American Institute of Physics.