Enhancement in electron field emission in ultrananocrystalline and microcrystalline diamond films upon 100 MeV silver ion irradiation

Journal Article · Wed Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3106638· OSTI ID:21356113

Chen, H -C; Palnitkar, Umesh; Pong, W -F; Lin, I-N ^[1]; Singh, Abhinav Pratap; Kumar, Ravi ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taiwan 251 (China)
2. Inter-University Accelerator Center, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110007 (India)

Enhanced electron field emission (EFE) behavior was observed in ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) and microcrystalline diamond (MCD) films upon irradiation with 100 MeV Ag{sup 9+}-ions in a fluence of 5x10{sup 11} ions/cm{sup 2}. Transmission electron microscopy indicated that while the overall crystallinity of these films remained essentially unaffected, the local microstructure of the materials was tremendously altered due to heavy ion irradiation, which implied that the melting and recrystallization process have occurred along the trajectory of the heavy ions. Such a process induced the formation of interconnected nanocluster networks, facilitating the electron conduction and enhancing the EFE properties for the materials. The enhancement in the EFE is more prominent for MCD films than that for UNCD films, reaching a low turn-on field of E{sub 0}=3.2 V/mum and large EFE current density of J{sub e}=3.04 mA/cm{sup 2} for 5x10{sup 11} ions/cm{sup 2} heavy ion irradiated samples.

• OSTI ID: 21356113
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 105, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3106638; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
CURRENT DENSITY
DIAMONDS
FIELD EMISSION
HEAVY IONS
ION BEAMS
IRRADIATION
MAGNETIC CIRCULAR DICHROISM
MELTING
MEV RANGE 100-1000
MICROSTRUCTURE
NANOSTRUCTURES
RECRYSTALLIZATION
SILVER IONS
THIN FILMS
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
BEAMS
CARBON
CHARGED PARTICLES
DICHROISM
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
ELEMENTS
EMISSION
ENERGY RANGE
FILMS
IONS
MEV RANGE
MICROSCOPY
MINERALS
NONMETALS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS