Mechanism responsible for initiating carbon nanotube vacuum breakdown.
We report a physical mechanism responsible for initiating a vacuum breakdown process of a single carbon nanotube (CNT) during field emission. A quasidynamic method has been developed to simulate the breakdown process and calculate the critical field, critical emission current density and critical temperature beyond which thermal runaway occurs before the CNT temperature reaches its melting point. This model is in good agreement with experiments carried out with a single CNT on a silicon microtip.
State Key Lab of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, and Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Materials and Technologies, Sun Yat-sen (Zhongshan) University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
N Y
NY
Huang
J C
JC
She
Jun
J
Chen
S Z
SZ
Deng
N S
NS
Xu
H
H
Bishop
S E
SE
Huq
L
L
Wang
D Y
DY
Zhong
E G
EG
Wang
D M
DM
Chen