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The effect of diamond film grain size on electron field emission performance

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Abstract

Diamond films with different grain sizes in the range of ~ 9 nm to ~ 50 μm have been deposited on silicon substrates using a homemade microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition reactor by varying the deposition parameters. The surface morphologies have been examined by scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscope, which show the secondary nucleation intensity and surface defects of the diamond films increase with the decrease of the diamond grain size. Although X-ray diffraction spectra show the absence of graphitic carbon features, the Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy show the sp2/sp3-bonded carbon ratios increase with the decrease of the diamond grains. The CH4 percentage in plasma during deposition plays a crucial role in the formation of diamond films with different grain sizes and sp2 contents, which in turn determines the electron field emission behavior of the corresponding diamond films. The smaller the grain size of the diamond, the higher is the grain boundary density, which can provide more electron emission sites and form conductive networks for electron transport. The ultra-nanocrystalline diamond film shows needle-like cluster structures and optimum electrical performance. The corresponding electron field emission behavior can be turned on at a field of 6.71 V/μm and attain a current density of 16.28 μA/cm2 at an applied field of 11.31 V/μm.

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The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also forms part of an ongoing study.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Laboratory of superhard materials for useful experimental apparatus to this work. Furthermore, this work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (51601124, 51901154), the Science and Technology Major Project of Shanxi (20181102013), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (201901D211092).

Funding

This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (51601124, 51901154), the Science and Technology Major Project of Shanxi (20181102013), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (201901D211092).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, Shanxi, China

    Yihao Yang, Hongjun Hei, Jie Gao, Yixin Zhang, Yanxia Wu, Yanyan Shen & Shengwang Yu

  2. Huayang New Material Technology Group Co. Ltd, Yangquan, 045000, Shanxi, China

    Pingyu Kuai & Kechang Liu

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  1. Yihao Yang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by YS, YY, and YZ. The first draft of the manuscript was written by YY and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yanyan Shen or Shengwang Yu.

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Yang, Y., Hei, H., Gao, J. et al. The effect of diamond film grain size on electron field emission performance. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 1395–1404 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-021-07558-y

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