Guo Xin, You Yajun, Bao Aida, Jia Pinggang, Xiong Jijun, Li Junshuai
National Key Laboratory for Electronic Measurement Technology, North University of China, 3 Xueyuan Road, Taiyuan 030051, China.
Key Laboratory of Special Function Materials and Structure Design of the Ministry of Education, Lanzhou University, 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou 730000, China.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Jan 31;13(3):577. doi: 10.3390/nano13030577.
The interest in the field electron emission cathode nanomaterials is on the rise due to the wide applications, such as electron sources, miniature X-ray devices, display materials, etc. In particular, nanodiamond (ND) film is regarded as an ideal next-generation cathode emitter in the field emission devices, due to the low or negative electron affinity, small grain size, high mechanical hardness, low work function, and high reliability. Increasing efforts are conducted on the investigation of the emission structures, manufacturing cost, and field emission properties improvement of the ND films. This review aims to summarize the recent research, highlight the new findings, and provide a roadmap for future developments in the area of ND film electron field emitter. Specially, the optimizing methods of large-scale, high-quality, and cost-effective synthesis of ND films are discussed to achieve more stable surface structure and optimal physical properties. Additionally, the mainstream strategies applied to produce high field emission performance of ND films are analyzed in detail, including regulating the grain size/boundary, hybrid phase carbon content, and doping element/type of ND films; meanwhile, the problems existing in the related research and the outlook in this area are also discussed.
由于场发射阴极纳米材料在电子源、微型X射线装置、显示材料等方面的广泛应用，其受到的关注正在不断增加。特别是，纳米金刚石（ND）薄膜因其低或负的电子亲和势、小晶粒尺寸、高机械硬度、低功函数和高可靠性，被视为场发射器件中理想的下一代阴极发射体。人们对ND薄膜的发射结构、制造成本以及场发射性能改进的研究投入不断增加。本综述旨在总结近期的研究，突出新发现，并为ND薄膜电子场发射体领域的未来发展提供路线图。特别地，讨论了大规模、高质量且具有成本效益的ND薄膜合成的优化方法，以实现更稳定的表面结构和最佳物理性能。此外，详细分析了用于实现ND薄膜高场发射性能的主流策略，包括调节ND薄膜的晶粒尺寸/边界、混合相碳含量以及掺杂元素/类型；同时，还讨论了相关研究中存在的问题以及该领域的前景。
