Diamond and carbon-derived vacuum micro- and nano-electronic devices

A “morphologically engineered” fabrication approach has been utilized for the development various configurations of diamond/carbon field emitter arrays and devices. Based on this approach, we have developed several fabrication processes to micro-pattern diamond and other forms of carbon structures and achieve topologically managed field emitters that optimize both the geometrical and quantum aspects of the Fowler-Nordheim governed field emission. We report the fabrication of (a) pyramidal and edge-shaped vertical field emission devices, (b) lateral diamond field emission devices, (c) nano-patterned nano-scaled diamond field emitter arrays, and (d) gated carbon nanotubes field emitters. Excellent field emission device structures over a large area have been achieved with these fabrication methods. The interesting field emission results of these devices suggest the potential of diamond/carbon emission devices beyond conventional vacuum microelectronics is significant.