On the thermionic emission from nitrogen-doped diamond films with respect to energy conversion

Koeck FAM, Garguilo JM and Nemanich RJ

Thermionic energy converters utilize thermal energy and efficiently transform it into more useful electrical energy. A key aspect in thermionic energy conversion is the emission of electrons at elevated temperatures, where the electron emitter is separated from the collector by a vacuum gap and a voltage is generated due to the temperature difference between the emitter and collector. In this study, nitrogen-doped diamond films with a negative electron affinity surface have been synthesized with plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition, and the electron emission has been imaged using high-resolution electron emission microscopy. This study reports the measurement of a thermovoltage and current, i.e. energy conversion, at temperatures considerably less than 1000 °C.

DIAMOND AND RELATED MATERIALS 13 (11-12): 2052-2055 NOV-DEC 2004