SBIR Phase I: High Efficiency Diamond Micro-Cold Cathode for Electron Field Emission

* 摘要 小行星9660272 这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种新型的和高效率的金刚石微阴极和微阴极阵列，通过合成和沉积纳米晶金刚石薄膜导电微纤维端通过一个独特的化学气相沉积（CVD）过程。金刚石由于其无与伦比的低电压和室温操作的电子场发射特性、操作鲁棒性、简单的设计和可重复性，最近成为一种有前途的电子场发射阴极。然而，本发明的金刚石阴极是通过常规金刚石CVD工艺沉积在宏观衬底（mm至cm尺寸）上的微晶金刚石薄膜。这些微晶金刚石阴极最近已被确定具有以下缺点。只有1-10%或更少的金刚石阴极表面是活性的，并且贡献了几乎所有产生的电流，导致整体低的发射效率。少数填充的主动发射位点的分布也是随机的和不受控制的。来自每个单独发射位置的电子发射也不能独立控制。这种新型纳米金刚石微阴极具有显著提高的场发射效率、低工作电场下的高电流密度、可控的发射性能和发射模式，有望克服上述缺点。 第一阶段计划的成功完成将导致新一代金刚石场发射阴极的开发。显著提高的效率、低场下的高可用电流密度、发射控制和发射模式的灵活性、操作鲁棒性和简单的制造预计将有益于从平板显示器、TV和计算机屏幕、飞行器视觉显示器到高能加速器物理的各种真空电子应用。由于高效率，新金刚石阴极的成本也将大大降低。***

*** ABSTRACT 9660272 Pan This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a novel and high efficiency diamond micro-cathode and micro-cathode array by synthesizing and depositing nanocrystalline diamond thin films on conductive micro-fiber ends through a unique chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Diamond has recently emerged as a promising electron field emission cathode due to its unsurpassed electron field emission properties of low voltage and room temperature operation, operation robustness, simple design, and reproducibility. However, the present diamond cathodes are microcrystalline diamond thin films deposited on macrosubstrate (mm to cm size) by a conventional diamond CVD process. These microcrystalline diamond cathodes have been recently identified to have the following drawbacks. Only 1-10% or less of the diamond cathode surface is active and contributes nearly all the current produced, resulting in an overall low emission efficiency. The distribution of the minority populated active emission sites is also random and uncontrolled. The electron emission from each individual emission site can not be independently controlled either. These drawbacks are expected to be overcome by the development of this novel nanocrystalline diamond micro-cathode by the demonstration of significantly improved field emission efficiency, very high current density at low operation field, controlled emission performance and emission pattern. The successful completion of the Phase I program will result in the development of a new generation diamond field emission cathode. The significantly improved efficiency, high available current density at low field, flexibility in emission control and emission pattern, operation robustness, and simple fabrication are expected to benefit a large variety of vacuum-electronic applications ranging from flat panel displays, TV and computer screens, aircraft vision displays to high energy accelerator physics. Because of the high efficiency, the cost of the new diamond cathodes will also be substantially reduced. ***