Effect of nitrogen on deposition and field emission properties of boron-doped micro- and nano-crystalline diamond films

In this paper, we report the effect of nitrogen on the deposition and properties of boron doped diamond films synthesized by hot filament chemical vapor deposition. The diamond films consisting of micro-grains (nano-grains) were realized with low (high) boron source flow rate during the growth processes. The transition of micro-grains to nano-grains is speculated to be strongly (weekly) related with the boron (nitrogen) flow rate. The grain size and Raman spectral feature vary insignificantly as a function of the nitrogen introduction at a certain boron flow rate. The variation of electron field emission characteristics dependent on nitrogen is different between microcrystalline and nanocrystalline boron doped diamond samples, which are related to the combined phase composition, boron doping level and texture structure. There is an optimum nitrogen proportion to improve the field emission properties of the boron-doped films.