Electron field emission from boron doped microcrystalline diamond

Field emission properties of hot filament chemical vapor deposited boron doped polycrystalline diamond have been studied. Doping level (NB) of different samples has been varied by the B/C concentration in the gas feed during the growth process and doping saturation has been observed for high B/C ratios. Threshold field (Eth) for electron emission as function of B/C concentration has been measured, and the influences of grain boundaries, doping level and surface morphology on field emission properties have been investigated. Carrier transport through conductive grains and local emission properties of surface sites have been figured out to be two independent limiting effects in respect of field emission. Emitter current densities of 500 nA cm−2 were obtained using electric fields less than 8 V/μm.