Nanostructured diamond and diamond-like materials for application in field-emission devices

Nanostructured diamond and diamond-like materials having good field electron emission properties have been prepared using a hot-filament assisted chemical vapour deposition system fed with ethanol/hydrogen/helium mixtures. The changes in the structure of the samples were determined by the hydrogen content in the gas mixture and varied from samples of nanocrystalline diamond with graphitic connection between the grains (for helium concentration 40 vol %). Although the samples had such structural differences, low threshold values for electron field emission in vacuum were observed for representative samples of low and high hydrogen concentrations in the gas feed.