In addition, diamond films exhibit field emission at fields orders of magnitude lower than for existing state-of-the-art emitters. Present state-of-the-art microfabricated field emitters generally require applied fields above 5x10^7 V/cm. Research on field emission from CVD diamond and high-pressure, high-temperature diamond has shown that field emission can be obtained at fields as low as 2x10^4 V/cm. It has also been shown that thin layers of metals, such as gold, and of alkali halides, such as CsI, can significantly increase field emission and stability. Emitters with nanometer-scale lithography will be able to obtain high-current densities with voltages on the order of only 10 to 15 V.
Mearini, G.T.; Krainsky, I.L.; and Dayton, J.A., Jr.,: Investigation of Diamond Films for Electronic Devices. Surf. and Interface Anal., vol. 21, 1994, pp. 138-143.
Mearini, G.T., et al.: Stable Secondary Electron Emission Observations From Chemical Vapor Deposited Diamond. Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 65, no. 21, Nov. 1994, pp. 2702-2704.
Mearini, G.T., et al.: Stable Secondary Electron Emission From Chemical Vapor Deposited Diamond Films Coated With Alkali-Halides. Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 66, no. 2, Jan. 1995, pp. 242- 244.
Lamouri, A., et al.: Proc. of the International Vacuum Microelectronic Conference, Portland, OR, 1995.
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