Monte Carlo study of hot electron and ballistic transport in diamond: I. Low electric field region

A Monte Carlo simulation of electron transport in the conduction band of diamond as a function of field and film thickness has been performed. It predicts that the energy distribution of field emitted electrons "heats up" to several eV when the internal electric field is of the order of 1 V//spl mu/m. The energy distribution becomes broader as the width of the sample increases. With increasing field (/spl ges/10 V//spl mu/m) there is a transition to ballistic behavior in diamond with the peak energy scaling roughly with the field. It is suggested that if a realistic and viable electron injection mechanism into the conduction band of a diamond-metal or diamond-semiconductor interface could be found for those crystal faces of diamond exhibiting NEA, then a copious cold cathode electron emitter is feasible.