Field emission characteristics of diamond films with different surface morphologies

The field:emission characteristics of diamond films with different surface morphologies were studied. The diamond films were grown on silicon substrat es by chemical vapor deposition technique under different deposition condit ions. The nucleation density and surface morphological properties were anal yzed by means of scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Results from these studies showed that the diamond film with small crystal size and high nucleation densities had better field emission characteristic s,, In addition, (110) and (111) oriented films exhibited better field emis sion properties than (100) oriented films; (C) 1999 American Vacuum Society . [S0734-211X(99)11502-6].