Demonstration of a sheet electron beam production from a UNCD field emitter array

Ultra nanocrystalline diamond (UNCD) is a promising material for field emitters because of its mechanical and chemical stability, high thermal conductivity, and low electrical resistivity. We proposed to demonstrate fabrication of a special shape field emitter array to produce a sheet electron beam for high frequency vacuum tubes. At Los Alamos, we established a Field Emitter Array Test Stand (FEATS) where we can apply voltages up to 40 kV to test field emitter arrays in a vacuum level of 10^-7 Torr or lower. At this test stand, we can take beam images, measure beam current and study beam divergence. We fabricated diamond cathodes in form of arrays of 1 by 81 pyramids and used them to demonstrate production of a sheet electron beam. This talk will present details of the emission tests and analyses of the produced sheet beam.