Mechanisms of field emission from diamond films

Mechanisms for field emission from diamond films are analyzed in details. Diamond films for field emission may be modeled with three regions of interest: the substrate( Si or metal)-diamond interface, the diamond transport region, and the diamond-vacuum interface. Roles of the three regions are different. The substrate-diamond interface plays an important role in determining field emission from diamond particles on emitter tips; The diamond transport region is vital to field emission from undoped polycrystalline(or noncrystalline) and n-type doped diamond films, while the diamond-vacuum interface plays a role in determining field emission from p-type doped diamond films. Following these considerations, models for field emission from diamond particles and p-type diamond films are described and a model of the Poole-Frenkel effect with overlapping centers for field emission from undoped polycrystalline( or noncrystalline) and n-type doped diamond films is proposed.