Abstract
Abstract The purpose of this study is to produce a plasma treated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composite diamond tip arrays with low turn-on field and steady emission current density. It can be a high performance field emission cathode. CNTs (for current emission) and diamond (for heat spreading) composite presents good FE properties. The diamond film conducts away the Joule heat, which is generated between CNTs and Si substrate during field emission. The plasma changes the morphology and structure of CNTs and improves the field emission properties. The structural and morphology of treated CNTs are examined by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The field emission effect of treated CNTs are examined by the field emission meter. Micro Si tip arrays is fabricated by using lithography and XeF2 etching. This novel method is low-cost and simple. In this study, a novel FE cathode has been fabricated, which combines the advantage of diamond tip arrays, CNTs, and plasma treatment. The cathode presents good FE properties: the turn on voltage is 2.84 V/µm, the current density at 5.5 V/µm is 0.59 mA/cm2, and the field enhancement factor is 1701. The current stability of novel FE cathode is better than as grown CNTs/CNTs on diamond tip arrays.