Combined effect of nitrogen doping and nanosteps on microcrystalline diamond films for improvement of field emission

Nitrogen-doped microcrystalline diamond (N-MCD) films were grown on Si substrates using a hot filament reactor with methanol solution of urea as N source. Electrostatic self-assembly seeding of nanocrystalline diamond were used to obtain continuous and uniform films. Simultaneous changes in grains morphology and work function of diamond by nitrogen doping decreased the threshold field and the angular coefficient of Fowler-Nordhein plots. The field emission properties of our N-MCD films are comparable to carbon nanotube films.