Field electron emission from nanodiamond

Abstract

Nanodiamond (ND) films on silicon substrates have been synthesized by plasmachemical deposition (PCD). Films with minimum differences in the structure and morphology, which were obtained by varying the PCD process parameters, exhibited significantly (several orders in magnitude) different field-emission currents. It was found that the surface of ND films showing by the maximum field-emission currents contains needle-like carbon structures. Based on the obtained experimental data, it is concluded that the field-emission properties of ND films are determined by the presence of non-diamond carbon inclusions.