Field emission characteristics of boron-doped diamond films prepared by MPE-CVD

The effect of post-treatment process on electron field emission properties of the chemical vapor deposited diamond films, which were incorporated with boron-species, was examined. The SIMS profile and IR spectroscopy reveal that the solubility limit of boron species in diamond materials is around B3q.s5=1021 cmy3, whereas the concentration of boron-species, which can be incorporated as substitutional dopants in diamond lattice is one tenth of solubility limit, i.e., B3q.s5=1020 cmy3. The electron field emission properties of the as-deposited diamond films vary with the boron-content significantly. Moreover, post-annealing in vacuum alters the electron field emission properties of the films mainly via the rearrangement of the defects. Therefore, the electron emission capacity of lightly boron-doped diamonds is markedly suppressed and that of the heavily boron-doped diamonds is insignificantly modified due to post-annealing process. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.