Boron-Doped Nanocrystalline Diamond–Carbon Nanospike Hybrid Electron Emission Source

Abstract

Electron emission signifies an important mechanism facilitating the enlargement of devices that have modernized large parts of science and technology. Today, the search for innovative electron emission devices for imaging, sensing, electronics, and high-energy physics continues. Integrating two materials with dissimilar electronic properties into a hybrid material is an extremely sought-after synergistic approach, envisioning a superior field electron emission (FEE) material. An innovation is described regarding the fabrication of a nanostructured carbon hybrid, resulting from the one-step growth of boron-doped nanocrystalline diamond (BNCD) and carbon nanospikes (CNSs) by a microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique. Spectroscopic and microscopic tools are used to investigate the morphological, bonding, and microstructural characteristics related to the growth mechanism of these hybrids. Utilizing the benefits of both the sharp edges of the CNSs and the high stability of BNCD, promising FEE performance with a lower turn-on field of 1.3 V/μm, a higher field enhancement factor of 6780, and a stable FEE current stability lasting for 780 min is obtained. The microplasma devices utilizing these hybrids as a cathode illustrate a superior plasma illumination behavior. Such hybrid carbon nanostructures, with superb electron emission characteristics, can encourage the enlargement of several electron emission device technologies.

Nitrogen-Incorporated Boron-Doped Nanocrystalline Diamond Nanowires for Microplasma Illumination

“…Interestingly, the PI performance of the NB-DNWs displays substantial improvements as compared to other materials as cathodes in the microplasma device reported earlier (Table ). − …”

Stable Field Electron Emission and Plasma Illumination from Boron and Nitrogen Co‐Doped Edge‐Rich Diamond‐Enhanced Carbon Nanowalls

“…The graphene phases encasing the diamond grains are responsible for these conduction regions. The FEE mechanism is proposed based on the above observations as follows: as the sp 2 graphene phase increased the percolative conduction paths in the D-ECNWs, [37,38] the numerous sharp edges on the top of the nanowalls induced a fast electron transport rate, [7,9,[48][49][50][51][52] thus resulting in enhanced FEE characteristics namely, low E 0 , large β, and high J e values. Moreover, the presence of sp 3 -diamond grains assisted in achieving a high FEE lifetime stability of these nanowalls.…”

“…[5] Nevertheless, carbon nanomaterials such as nanotubes, nanoflakes, or even graphene have been used as extraordinary electron sources. [6] Their FEE characteristics are superior, [7] but they show poor stability and a short lifetime, [8] which prevents them from becoming a practical material for device applications. Basically, the FEE process involves two steps including the electron transporting into the emitting sites and the electron tunneling into vacuum from Superior field electron emission (FEE) characteristics are achieved in edge-rich diamond-enhanced carbon nanowalls (D-ECNWs) grown in a single-step chemical vapor deposition process co-doped with boron and nitrogen.…”

“…The overall FEE performance could be influenced by the electrically conducting pathways and the effective emitting sites. [7,9] The mentioned materials, despite having many attractive properties, are outgrown by boron-doped nanowalls (B-CNWs). B-CNWs have excellent additional properties such as tunable band gap, high conductivity, [10] excellent mechanical resistivity, [11] and high optical absorbance.…”

Hydrogenation of diamond nanowire surfaces for effective electrostatic charge storage

“…Diamond could be an interesting material for use as an electrostatic charge-trapping material because of its unique set of interesting electronic properties. [39][40][41] Perceiving, finding, and enhancing the basic electrostatic charging properties of diamond are important for diamond-based electronic device applications.…”