Thermionic and field electron emission from nanostructured carbon materials for energy conversion and vacuum electronics

Franz A.M. Koeck, Yunyu Yang, Robert J. Nemanich

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

While initial interest in using diamond materials for electron emission was derived from the observation of a negative electron affinity of the material, the nanoscale structure of the material has proven to be critical to obtaining field emission at an applied field of less than 2V/μm. This study presents topographic and emission site images of nanocrystalline diamond films. The results suggest that morphology variations are insufficient to explain the observed emission patterns. The thermionic properties of sulphur doped nanocrystalline diamond films and carbon nanotubes were measured and analyzed in terms of Schottky barrier lowering. The results indicated a general consistency of the field emission and thermionic emission from the same films. The potential for thermionic energy conversion based on these films is presented.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationIECON 2005
Subtitle of host publication31st Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
Pages2389-2394
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2005
Externally publishedYes
EventIECON 2005: 31st Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society - Raleigh, NC, United States
Duration: Nov 6 2005Nov 10 2005

Publication series

NameIECON Proceedings (Industrial Electronics Conference)
Volume2005

Other

OtherIECON 2005: 31st Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityRaleigh, NC
Period11/6/0511/10/05

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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