title: Improving the emission characteristics of a carbon nanotube cathode in an aging process.
abstract: Aging of the field emission performance of the printed carbon nanotubes (CNTs) cathode is studied. A continuous increase of the field emission current as well as the density of field emission sites under a constant voltage is observed. It is revealed that the resistant heating may play an important role in the activation of the potential emitters during the aging process. A technique of activating the printed CNT cathode with an aging process is suggested. F-N curves before and after the aging processes are analyzed and it is revealed that the effective emission area increases during the aging process.
authors.affiliation: School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China. lwhua@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Weihua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Changchun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu