AVS 46th International Symposium
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       Session FP+VT-MoM

Paper FP+VT-MoM8
Field Emission Properties of Conformal and Non-Conformal Diamond Film Coatings on Si Microtip Electron Emitters

Monday, October 25, 1999, 10:40 am, Room 604

Session: Field Emission Displays and Vacuum Packaging Issues
Presenter: A.R. Krauss, Argonne National Laboratory
Authors: M.Q. Ding, Beijing Vacuum Electronics Research Institute, China
A.R. Krauss, Argonne National Laboratory
O. Auciello, Argonne National Laboratory
D.M. Gruen, Argonne National Laboratory
Y. Huang, Argonne National Laboratory
V.V. Zhirnov, Semiconductor Research Corp.
E.I. Givargizov, Institute of Crystallography, Russia
A. Stepanov, Institute of Crystallography, Russia
Correspondent: Click to Email
Non-conformal and conformal nanocrystalline diamond films were deposited on single needle-shaped Si tip emitters, using hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) and microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD), respectively. The HFCVD diamond was deposited in the form of large single crystal grains at the end of the microtips, whereas the nanocrystalline diamond films were uniformly thick conformal coatings. The threshold voltages for cold cathode electron emission were measured for Si microtips as a function of both the thickness of the diamond coating and the radius of the Si tips. The threshold voltages for the single crystal HFCVD coatings were found to vary with both the tip radius and diamond film thickness. For the nanocrystalline films, the threshold fields were found to be significantly lower than the uncoated tips, and nearly independent of both Si tip radius and film thickness. In this case, the behavior is consistent with field emission that is determined largely by local electric field enhancement associated with intrinsic film properties. A model is presented in which the field enhancement occurs at sp2-bonded grain boundaries. Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, BES-Materials Sciences, under Contract W-31-109-ENG-38, and ER-LTR CRADA No. C9501501 with SI Diamond Technology, Inc., Austin, TX, and DARPA/ONR under Contract N00014-97-F0305 The submitted manuscript has been created by the University of Chicago as operator of Argonne National Laboratory under contract no. W-31-109-ENG-38 with the U. S. Department of Energy. The U. S. Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up, non-exclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the government.