This study investigated the deposition and field-emission characteristics of diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films grown on the silicon and indium-tin oxide (ITO) substrates by using a self-designed dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) atmospheric pressure (AP) plasma system with 7 quartz tube jet-electrodes. Helium (He) gas and acetylene (C(2)H(2)) gas were used as a main plasma working gas and a precursor gas, respectively. Hydrogen gas was adopted to perform etching reaction for obtaining sharper DLC surface. By optimizing the deposition parameters and post-etching process, a turn-on electric field of 7.08 V/mu m was achieved for the DLC thin film. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.