A theoretical study of thermal instability of tips with and without diamond coatings

Thermal effects in molybdenum and silicon tips with and without CVD diamond coatings are analyzed and an attempt is made to identify "intrinsic" phenomena that might trigger catastrophic vacuum breakdown. A new theoretical treatment is employed to study the thermal response of tip emitters, which takes into account the correlative effect between the temperature rise in the channel and field emission at the interface between tip and coating.