Direct observation and mechanism for enhanced field emission sites in platinum ion implanted/post-annealed ultrananocrystalline diamond films

Abstract

Enhanced electron field emission (EFE) properties for ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) films upon platinum (Pt) ion implantation and subsequent post-annealing processes is reported, viz., low turn-on field of 4.17 V/μm with high EFE current density of 5.08 mA/cm2 at an applied field of 7.0 V/μm. Current imaging tunneling spectroscopy (CITS) mode in scanning tunneling spectroscopy directly revealed the increased electron emission sites density for Pt ion implanted/post-annealed UNCD films than the pristine one. The high resolution CITS mapping and local current–voltage characteristic curves demonstrated that the electrons are dominantly emitted from the diamond grain boundaries and Pt nanoparticles.