Mold growth of polycrystalline pyramidal-shape diamond for field emitters

CVD diamonds were grown on inverted pyramidal-shape Si substrates, which were fabricated with standard photolithography and anisotropic etching techniques. After removing the substrates, pyramidal-shape polycrystalline diamonds with diamond seeds and without diamond seeds were obtained. The tip radius of each pyramid was estimated to be about 5000 Angstrom from scanning electron microscopy observations, and the pyramids were identified as polycrystalline diamond from the results of Auger electron spectroscopy, electron diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. When these pyramids were placed in a high vacuum system, relatively low-threshold electron emission was confirmed, suggesting that the pyramidal-shape polycrystalline diamonds fabricated with the mold technique would be appropriate for field emitters.