This dissertation furthers the understanding of diamond as a material for cold cathode field emission. Although diamond has proven to be an excellent emitter with orders of magnitude more current at lower fields than competing technologies, fabrication yield has been a persistent issue. Irregularities in emission behavior between tips have historically been attributed to anomalies in the fabrication process which results in sharp or less sharp diamond tips. However, differences are observed in electron emission thresholds even between tips that appear by conventional analysis to be equally well formed. By enabling analysis of the emitter surface and sub-surface, the methods developed herein permit analysis of diamond tip growth and provide a feedback mechanism for optimization of field emitter properties. This dissertation contains first-time measurements of sharp-tipped diamond cold cathode field emitters imaged by transmission electron microscopy. These preliminary observations correlate hitherto unknown diamond cold cathode emitter nanostructure with emission behavior.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-10232011-200039 |
| Date | 25 October 2011 |
| Creators | Wade, Travis Charles |
| Contributors | Weng P Kang, Jim Davidson, Norman Tolk, Kalman Varga, Charles Lukehart, Greg Walker |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-10232011-200039/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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