Nanodiamonds for field emission: state of the art.

The aim of this review is to highlight the recent advances and the main remaining challenges related to the issue of electron field emission (FE) from nanodiamonds. The roadmap for FE vacuum microelectronic devices envisages that nanodiamonds could become very important in a short time. The intrinsic properties of the nanodiamond materials indeed meet many of the requirements of cutting-edge technologies and further benefits can be obtained by tailored improvements of processing methodologies. The current strategies used to modulate the morphological and structural features of diamond to produce highly performing emitting systems are reported and discussed. The focus is on the current understanding of the FE process from nanodiamond-based materials and on the major concepts used to improve their performance. A short survey of non-conventional microsized cold cathodes based on nanodiamonds is also reported.

[1]  Gehan A. J. Amaratunga,et al.  Microwave devices: Carbon nanotubes as cold cathodes , 2005, Nature.

[2]  S. Orlanducci,et al.  Carbon nanotube/nanodiamond structures: An innovative concept for stable and ready-to-start electron emitters , 2009 .

[3]  I. Lin,et al.  Flexible electron field emitters fabricated using conducting ultrananocrystalline diamond pyramidal microtips on polynorbornene films , 2014 .

[4]  James E. Butler,et al.  The CVD of Nanodiamond Materials , 2008 .

[5]  R. Chang,et al.  The effect of nitrogen addition to Ar/CH4 plasmas on the growth, morphology and field emission of ultrananocrystalline diamond , 2002 .

[6]  D. Gruen,et al.  Synthesis, properties, and applications of ultrananocrystalline diamond , 2005 .

[7]  K. Leou,et al.  High stability electron field emitters made of nanocrystalline diamond coated carbon nanotubes , 2013 .

[8]  I. Lin,et al.  The role of nano-graphite phase on the enhancement of electron field emission properties of ultrananocrystalline diamond films , 2012 .

[9]  D. Gruen,et al.  Bonding structure in nitrogen doped ultrananocrystalline diamond , 2003 .

[10]  J. D. Johnson,et al.  Diamonds in detonation soot , 1988, Nature.

[11]  I. Lin,et al.  The induction of nanographitic phase on Fe coated diamond films for the enhancement in electron field emission properties , 2013 .

[12]  G. Galli,et al.  Ultradispersity of diamond at the nanoscale , 2003, Nature materials.

[13]  Qiaoqin Yang,et al.  Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes/diamond double-layered structure for improved field electron emission stability , 2013 .

[14]  J. Coleman,et al.  Charge transport effects in field emission from carbon nanotube-polymer composites , 2005 .

[15]  Olga Shenderova,et al.  Ultrananocrystalline Diamond: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications , 2006 .

[16]  D. Gruen.  Ultrananocrystalline Diamond in the Laboratory and the Cosmos , 2001 .

[17]  C. Gu,et al.  Enhanced gas-sensing by diamond nanoneedle arrays formed by reactive ion etching , 2011 .

[18]  W. Hofmeister,et al.  Nanodiamond planar lateral field emission diode , 2005 .

[19]  J. M. Kim,et al.  Field-emission characteristics from wide-bandgap material-coated carbon nanotubes , 2002 .

[20]  R. Kalish,et al.  Quantum confinement and Coulomb blockade in isolated nanodiamond crystallites , 2013 .

[21]  A. Vikharev,et al.  High-current electron emission of thin diamond films deposited on molybdenum cathodes , 2013 .

[22]  Marko Loncar,et al.  Fabrication of diamond nanowires for quantum information processing applications , 2009, 0908.0352.

[23]  I. Lin,et al.  Fast growth of ultrananocrystalline diamond films by bias-enhanced nucleation and growth process in CH4/Ar plasma , 2014 .

[24]  J. D. Woodhouse,et al.  Diamond cold cathode , 1991, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[25]  I. Lin,et al.  Direct observation and mechanism for enhanced electron emission in hydrogen plasma-treated diamond nanowire films. , 2014, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[26]  Yury Gogotsi,et al.  The properties and applications of nanodiamonds. , 2011, Nature nanotechnology.

[27]  A. Fujishima,et al.  Synthesis of Well‐Aligned Diamond Nanocylinders , 2001 .

[28]  Three-dimensional scattering by an infinite homogeneous anisotropic circular cylinder: An analytical solution , 1997 .

[29]  J. Robertson.  Mechanisms of electron field emission from diamond, diamond-like carbon, and nanostructured carbon , 1999 .

[30]  K. Leou,et al.  Enhancing the stability of microplasma device utilizing diamond coated carbon nanotubes as cathode materials , 2014 .

[31]  M. Terranova,et al.  One-Step Growth and Shaping by a Dual-Plasma Reactor of Diamond Nanocones Arrays for the Assembling of Stable Cold Cathodes , 2013 .

[32]  L. Ocola,et al.  Nanopatterning of ultrananocrystalline diamond nanowires , 2012, Nanotechnology.

[33]  Electron emission properties of detonation nanodiamonds , 2004 .

[34]  Q. Luo,et al.  The field emission properties of high aspect ratio diamond nanocone arrays fabricated by focused ion beam milling , 2005 .

[35]  I. Lin,et al.  Fabrication of free-standing highly conducting ultrananocrystalline diamond films with enhanced electron field emission properties , 2012 .

[36]  Shui-Tong Lee,et al.  Structuring nanodiamond cone arrays for improved field emission , 2003 .

[38]  Shui-Tong Lee,et al.  Structuring single- and nano-crystalline diamond cones , 2004 .

[39]  V. Konov,et al.  Diamond/sp2-bonded carbon structures: quantum well field electron emission? , 2001 .

[40]  A. Kriele,et al.  Aligned diamond nano-wires: Fabrication and characterisation for advanced applications in bio- and electrochemistry , 2010 .

[41]  R. Chang,et al.  Low temperature growth of ultrananocrystalline diamond on glass substrates for field emission applications. , 1999 .

[42]  Field electron emission from nanodiamond , 2009 .

[43]  R. Chang,et al.  Synthesis and electron field emission of nanocrystalline diamond thin films grown from N2/CH4 microwave plasmas , 1997 .

[44]  Weng Poo Kang,et al.  Performance Characteristics of Nanocrystalline Diamond Vacuum Field Emission Transistor Array , 2012 .

[45]  Chih-Yen Chen,et al.  Fabrication of submicron scale vertically aligned diamond rods by mask-free oxygen plasma etching , 2011 .

[46]  D. Gruen,et al.  Morphology and electronic structure in nitrogen-doped ultrananocrystalline diamond , 2002 .

[47]  M. V. Baidakova,et al.  New prospects and frontiers of nanodiamond clusters , 2007 .

[48]  A. Sawabe,et al.  ‘Nano-rods’ of single crystalline diamond , 2004 .

[49]  V. Mammana,et al.  Field emission properties of porous diamond-like films produced by chemical vapor deposition , 2002 .

[50]  H. Boyen,et al.  From self-organized masks to nanotips: A new concept for the preparation of densely packed arrays of diamond field emitters , 2006 .

[51]  I. Lin,et al.  Fabrication of an ultra-nanocrystalline diamond-coated silicon wire array with enhanced field-emission performance , 2007 .

[52]  Christoph E. Nebel,et al.  Diamond nano-wires, a new approach towards next generation electrochemical gene sensor platforms , 2009 .

[53]  A. Sumant,et al.  Single-step route to hierarchical flower-like carbon nanotube clusters decorated with ultrananocrystalline diamond , 2013 .

[54]  I. Lin,et al.  Bias enhanced nucleation and growth processes for improving the electron field emission properties of diamond films , 2013 .

[55]  B. Stoner,et al.  Bias assisted etching of diamond in a conventional chemical vapor deposition reactor , 1993 .

[56]  D. Gruen,et al.  Diamond nanowires and the insulator-metal transition in ultrananocrystalline diamond films , 2007 .

[57]  J. Robertson,et al.  Role of sp2 phase in field emission from nanostructured carbons , 2001 .

[58]  R. Nemanich,et al.  Direct correlation of surface morphology with electron emission sites for intrinsic nanocrystalline diamond films , 2004 .

[59]  M. Sugawara,et al.  Plasma Etching: Fundamentals and Applications , 1998 .

[60]  Dieter M. Gruen,et al.  NANOCRYSTALLINE DIAMOND FILMS1 , 1999 .

[61]  M. Howell,et al.  Nanodiamond lateral comb array field emission diode for high current applications , 2006 .

[62]  A. Vul,et al.  The Fundamental Properties and Characteristics of Nanodiamonds , 2010 .

[63]  R. Ruoff,et al.  Would Diamond Nanorods Be Stronger than Fullerene Nanotubes , 2003 .

[64]  I. Lin,et al.  Origin of a needle-like granular structure for ultrananocrystalline diamond films grown in a N2/CH4 plasma , 2012 .

[65]  Orlando Auciello,et al.  Electron field emission for ultrananocrystalline diamond films , 2001 .

[66]  Bálint Aradi,et al.  Calculation ofthe transitions and migration of nitrogen and vacancy related defects,with implications on the formation of NV centers in bulk diamond , 2013, 1311.6598.

[67]  Karl Goser,et al.  Manufacturability and robust design of nanoelectronic logic circuits based on resonant tunnelling diodes , 2000 .

[68]  M. Terranova,et al.  Unusual electrical behavior of Nd-doped diamond films , 1999 .

[69]  S. Vanka,et al.  Growth of nanodiamond/carbon-nanotube composites with hot filament chemical vapor deposition , 2008 .

[70]  S. Cloutier,et al.  Synthesis of diamond nanowires using atmospheric-pressure chemical vapor deposition. , 2010, Nano letters.

[71]  K. Leou,et al.  Investigations on diamond nanostructuring of different morphologies by the reactive-ion etching process and their potential applications. , 2013, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[72]  M. Terranova,et al.  Capacitive and analytical approaches for the analysis of field emission from carbon nanotubes in a sphere-to-plane diode , 2007 .

[73]  Q. Wan,et al.  Significant improvement of field emission by depositing zinc oxide nanostructures on screen-printed carbon nanotube films , 2006 .

[74]  M. Terranova,et al.  Controlled evolution of carbon nanotubes coated by nanodiamond. the realization of a new class of hybrid nanomaterials , 2005 .

[75]  Qiyuan Wang,et al.  Field electron emission from individual diamond cone formed by plasma etching , 2006 .

[76]  David C. Ingram,et al.  Cold field emission from CVD diamond films observed in emission electron microscopy , 1991 .

[77]  C. Gu,et al.  Highly efficient field emission from nanodiamond films treated by fast reactive ion etching process , 2011 .

[78]  F. J. Himpsel,et al.  Quantum photoyield of diamond(111)—A stable negative-affinity emitter , 1979 .

[79]  C. Spindt.  A Thin‐Film Field‐Emission Cathode , 1968 .

[80]  W. D. de Heer,et al.  A Carbon Nanotube Field-Emission Electron Source , 1995, Science.

[81]  L. Chou,et al.  Field emission from diamond nanotips treated with nitrogen plasma immersion ion implantation , 2007 .

[82]  Yung-chen Lin,et al.  Enhancing electron field emission properties of UNCD films through nitrogen incorporation at high substrate temperature , 2011 .

[83]  S. Hsu,et al.  Nanodiamond Vacuum Field Emission Integrated Differential Amplifier , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[84]  S. Shikata,et al.  Isotopic Homojunction Band Engineering from Diamond , 2009, Science.

[85]  P. May,et al.  Field emission from diamond-coated multiwalled carbon nanotube "teepee" structures , 2012 .

[86]  C. Posada,et al.  Nitrogen Incorporated Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Based Field Emitter Array for a Flat-Panel X-Ray Source , 2014 .

[87]  Michael Sternberg,et al.  Crystallinity and surface electrostatics of diamond nanocrystals , 2007 .

[88]  Chih-Yen Chen,et al.  Field Emission from One-Dimensional Submicron Diamond Rods , 2011 .

[89]  W. Hofmeister,et al.  The effect of growth rate control on the morphology of nanocrystalline diamond , 2005 .

[90]  W. Chu,et al.  Reactive ion etching of diamond , 1989 .

[91]  K. Galloway,et al.  A review of recent results on diamond vacuum lateral field emission device operation in radiation environments , 2011 .

[92]  M. Terranova,et al.  Hybrid carbon nanotube/nanodiamond structures as electron emitters for cold cathodes. , 2008, Journal of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

[93]  R. Harniman,et al.  Direct observation of electron emission from the grain boundaries of chemical vapour deposition diamond films by tunneling atomic force microscopy , 2014 .

[94]  I. Lin,et al.  Grain-size-dependent diamond-nondiamond composite films: characterization and field-emission properties. , 2009, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[95]  G. Kochanski,et al.  Electron field emission from chemical vapor deposited diamond , 1996 .

[96]  Z. Cui,et al.  The high aspect ratio conical diamond tips arrays and their field emission properties , 2006 .

[97]  W. Kang,et al.  A study of diamond field emission using micro-patterned monolithic diamond tips with different sp2 contents , 1997 .

[98]  Christoph E. Nebel,et al.  Vertically aligned diamond nanowires: Fabrication, characterization, and application for DNA sensing , 2009 .

[99]  D. Gruen,et al.  Electronic properties of low‐field‐emitting ultrananocrystalline diamond films , 2004 .

[100]  I. Lin,et al.  Enhanced electron field emission properties of conducting ultrananocrystalline diamond films after Cu and Au ion implantation. , 2014, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[101]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[102]  I. Lin,et al.  Gold ion implantation induced high conductivity and enhanced electron field emission properties in ultrananocrystalline diamond films , 2013 .

[103]  L. Curtiss,et al.  Synthesis and characterization of highly-conducting nitrogen-doped ultrananocrystalline diamond films , 2001 .

[104]  M. Terranova,et al.  Nanodiamond-Coated Carbon Nanotubes: Early Stage of the CVD Growth Process† , 2008 .

[105]  I. Lin,et al.  Enhancing electrical conductivity and electron field emission properties of ultrananocrystalline diamond films by copper ion implantation and annealing , 2014 .

[106]  M. Terranova,et al.  Nanocrystalline diamond films grown in nitrogen rich atmosphere: structural and field emission properties. , 2008, Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

[107]  Gehan A. J. Amaratunga,et al.  Low-threshold cold cathodes made of nitrogen-doped chemical-vapour-deposited diamond , 1996, Nature.

[108]  M. Terranova,et al.  Modulation of charge transport in diamond-based layers , 2003 .

[109]  R. Fowler,et al.  Electron Emission in Intense Electric Fields , 1928 .

[110]  A. Joshi,et al.  Erosion of diamond films and graphite in oxygen plasma , 1991 .

[111]  S. T. Lee,et al.  Oriented single-crystal diamond cones and their arrays , 2003 .

[112]  Shui-Tong Lee,et al.  Fabrication of diamond nanocones and nanowhiskers by bias-assisted plasma etching , 2007 .