On the enhancement of field emission performance of ultrananocrystalline diamond coated nanoemitters

Abstract

Ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) nanoemitters were synthesized by a microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process using silicon nanowires (SiNWs) as the template. Preseeding markedly enhances the nucleation of diamond on the SiNW templates, resulting in UNCD grains of smaller size and uniform distribution, which leads to significantly improved electron field emission (EFE) properties. The EFE for UNCD nanoemitters can be turned on at (E0)UNCD-NE=4.4V∕μm, achieving large EFE current density, (Je)UNCD-NE=13.9mA∕cm2 at an applied field of 12V∕μm, which is comparable with that of carbon nanotubes, but with much better processing reliability.