Field electron emission enhancement in lithium implanted and annealed nitrogen-incorporated nanocrystalline diamond films.

The field electron emission (FEE) properties of nitrogen-incorporated nanocrystalline diamond films were enhanced due to Li-ion implantation/annealing processes. Li-ion implantation mainly induced the formation of electron trap centers inside diamond grains, whereas post-annealing healed the defects and converted the a-C phase into nanographite, forming conduction channels for effective transport of electrons. This resulted in a high electrical conductivity of 11.0 S/cm and enhanced FEE performance with a low turn-on field of 10.6 V/µm, a high current density of 25.5 mA/cm² (at 23.2 V/µm), and a high lifetime stability of 1,090 min for nitrogen incorporated nanocrystalline diamond films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]