Formation of carbon cluster on the surface of diamond films for improving electron field emission properties

Abstract

The electron field emission properties of the diamond films were significantly improved via the formation of nanosized carbon clusters on their surface. The microstructures and Raman spectroscopy are markedly altered when the diamond films were coated with a thin layer of Fe/Co films (< 10 nm) and then post-annealed at high enough temperature ( > 800degreesC). The turn-on field was decreased from 14.8 to 7.6 V/mum and the electron field emission current density was increased more than 2 order of magnitude, from 20 to 2400 muA/cm(2), due to post-annealing process. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.