Field electron emitters from carbon nanotube films on diamond films

Abstract

In this paper, the field electron emission from carbon nanotubes on oriented growth diamond films was investigated. Carbon nanotubes and orientation growth diamond films were prepared by hot filament and microwave plasma CVD. The samples obtained were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The field emission experiments were performed in an ion-pumped vacuum chamber for different samples. The experimental results have shown that the field emission properties of carbon nanotubes films/diamond films structure have greatly been improved. A turn-on field of 0.9 V/μm and a maximum current of 500μA at 1.5/μm were observed. A lower turn-on field of 0.7V/μm was achieved after chemical treatment. This improvement may be attributed to the tiny tip shape of the carbon nanotubes on diamond films, which provided an additional local increase in electric field at the tip end.