THE EFFECT OF DIAMOND SURFACE TERMINATION SPECIES UPON FIELD-EMISSIONPROPERTIES

Undoped CVD diamond films on Si substrates have been chemically treate d in order to change the surface termination species. Treatments used include hydrogenation, deuteration, oxidation, hydrolysis, amination, chlorination, fluorination, and metallisation, using Na, K and Cs laye rs. The effect of these treatments upon field emission characteristics has been measured. In general, it is found that emission currents inc rease and threshold voltages decrease as the electronegativity of the surface species decreases. The best field emission properties were obs erved for the films with metal layers, with threshold voltages of simi lar to 15 V/mu m. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.