Effects of the surface treatment of silicon substrate on the field emission characteristic of a silicon and amorphous diamond cold cathode emitter

Details are given of an experimental study of the effects of surface treatm ent of silicon substrate on the field emission process of flat amorphous di amond (a-D) film field emitters. Using a filtered cathodic vacuum are plasm a deposition system (FCVAPD), the amorphous diamond (a-D) film was deposite d on both non-treated and etched silicon wafers (n-type and p-type). The fi eld electron emission characteristic was measured before and after depositi ng a-D film. The a-D him on etched silicon wafer shows distinct increase in emission current compared with that on non-treated silicon wafer. The phen omenon is attributed to two important reasons: the low or even negative sur face electron affinity of a-D film and the local field enhancement at the S i-diamond interface. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.