Field emission from reconstructed heavily phosphorus-doped homoepitaxial diamond (111)

We report about field emission from reconstructed phosphorus-doped diamond surfaces. In order to reconstruct the surface, annealing at 950 degrees C for 60 min in a high vacuum system has been applied. Field emission shows the lowest threshold field for the reconstructed surface of 16 V/mu m, while the threshold fields for oxidized and hydrogen-terminated surface are 28 and 44 V/mu m, respectively. A model is introduced to discuss these results, which takes into account effective electron affinities and tunneling of electrons from conduction band and donor levels. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.