Highly efficient field emission from nanodiamond films treated by fast reactive ion etching process

A fast reactive ion etching (RIE) treatment method is presented for dramatic enhancement of the field emission performances of nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films. In this method a moment RIE treatment is able to modify the surface morphologies of NCD films and form a large area of nanoneedle-like arrays on the NCD films, in which the diamond nanoparticles were seeded on the film to serve as an etching mask. These elaborated diamond nanoneedle-like structures showed good uniformity and dense morphology with a controllable aspect ratio and distribution density and thereby significantly increased the electron field emission properties of the NCD films due to the formation of more emitting tips and enhanced field enhancement factor.

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► Highly efficient field emission from nanodiamond films by fast RIE treatment process.
► Large area of diamond nanoneedle-like arrays was formed on the nanodiamond films by RIE process.
► Dispersed diamond nanoparticles were seeded on the nanodiamond film to serve as an etching mask.
► Enhanced field emission is due to more emitting tips and increased field enhancement factor.