Fabrication of planar diamond electron emitters for flat panel displays

A planar electron emitter was fabricated employing chemical vapor deposited (CVD) diamond thin films. This device is composed of CVD diamond films selectively deposited on a pair of patterned Au/Cr films separated 2 micrometers from each other. When the driving voltage (V-d) was applied between the Au/Cr films, the extremely low threshold emission from diamond film was observed (V-d similar to 10 V). Furthermore, by applying high voltage on anode screen placed above this device, part of emitted current was drawn to the anode and the luminescence from phosphors was clearly seen under V-d = 50V. The mechanism of electron emission from the diamond films used in this device was also discussed by comparing with the electron emission from isolated diamond particles. It was found that the effective work functions differ between the isolated particles and the continuous films. This result suggests a difference in the emission site of electrons.