Fabrication of a diamond field emitter array

Abstract
A diamond field emitter array has been fabricated. by Chemical vapor deposition. Diamond was grown on an inverted pyramidal-shape Si substrate followed by removal of the substrate. The fabricated array was placed in a high vacuum pumping system with the pressure of ∼10−7 Torr and the emission current as a function of the anode voltage was measured. The distance between the tungsten anode and the diamond surface was held constant at 100 μm throughout the measurement. As a result, a current larger than 10−4 A was obtained for an anode voltage of 6 kV. A linear relationship in the Fowler–Nordheim plot indicated the existence of electron field emission from the fabricated diamond field emitter array.