A High Performance Diamond Thin Film Cold Cathode

Abstract

In this reporting period, we have investigated the low power performance of amorphic diamond thin films deposited under various conditions such as laser power, thickness, gas pressure and background vacuum. We have found that higher power density gives better field emission. This has been correlated to a large number of particles on the sample which seems to increase with increased power density. In addition, the best films seem to have a bulk resistivity in the few hundred ohm-cm range. The reason for this is not very well understood at this time. During these investigations, we have found a phenomenon, which we call 'conditioning'. Conditioning shows several successive I-V curves taken on the same point on an amorphic diamond sample. It is seen that a relatively high voltage is required to turn on electron emission when the voltage is applied for the first time. After the first turn-on, the voltage required to emit the same current is decreased.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 30, 1993
Accession Number
ADA278620

Entities

People

  • Howard Schmidt
  • Nalin Kumar

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Current Density
  • Electron Emission
  • Electrons
  • Emission
  • Field Emission
  • Films
  • High Voltage
  • Ion Bombardment
  • Low Voltage
  • Materials
  • Photoexcitation
  • Test Facilities
  • Thermal Conductivity
  • Thin Films
  • Vacuum
  • Vacuum Chambers
  • Voltage

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics.
  • Software Engineering
  • Tribology (the study of the boundary interaction between sliding surfaces, lubrication, wear and friction).

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Pulsed-Laser Deposition
  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene