Diamond Coating of Diced Si Field Emitters for Enhanced Field Emission Performance

This study characterizes the field emission and heat development properties of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) coatings on diced n-Si field emitters. The emitter chip package consists of a diced field emitter array and a gold-coated glass extraction electrode fabricated using the Selective Laser Etching (SLE) process. In an attempt to ameliorate heat expansion issues observed in uncoated arrays, a thin layer of PCD was incorporated into the system, leveraging the materials potentially high thermal conductivity and low work function. Additionally, a thermography camera was used to characterize the electron source. The experiments confirmed that PCD-coated emitters operate more stably at lower voltages and exhibit significantly lower and more uniform thermal profiles.