Abstract
Patterned arrays of diamond nano-tips were grown on the backside of an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template by the hot-filament chemical vapor deposition method. The hard anodization method was used to fabricate the AAO template of uniform structure arrays and nano-diamond particles were adhered onto the AAO template by polyethyleneimine pretreatment to increase the nucleation density of diamond. The resultant surface morphology of the specimens was observed by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The quality was examined by Raman spectroscopy and field emission properties were tested out with the field emission meter. In terms of the results, the material, whose tip arrays with a gap of 50 nm between adjacent tips and gap to height ratio around 2.8, possesses the highest field emitting density and shows the minimal screening effect. The lowest turn-on field of 2.4 V/μm and the highest field emission current density of 2523 μA/cm2 are obtained for the case of the nitrogen doped diamond tips array with a pitch-height ratio of 2.8.