Excellent field electron emission properties of a diamond/CoSi₂/Si quantum well nanostructure are observed. The novel quantum well structure consists of high quality diamond emitters grown on bulk Si substrate with a nanosized epitaxial CoSi₂ conducting interlayer. The results show that the main emission properties were modified by varying the CoSi₂ thickness and that stable, low-field, high emission current and controlled electron emission can be obtained by using a high quality diamond film and a thicker CoSi₂ interlayer. An electron resonant tunneling mechanism in this quantum well structure is suggested, and the tunneling is due to the long electron mean free path in the nanosized CoSi₂ layer. This structure meets most of the requirements for development of vacuum micro/nanoelectronic devices and large-area cold cathodes for flat-panel displays.

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