Novel planar field emission of ultra-thin individual carbon nanotubes.
In this work, we proposed and realized a new prototype of planar field emission device based on as-grown individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the surface of a Si-SiO2 substrate. The anode, cathode and the CNT tip all lie on the same surface, so the electron emission is reduced from three-dimensional to two-dimensional. The benefits of such a design include usage of thinner CNT emitters, integrity with planar technology, stable construction, better heat dissipation, etc. A tip-to-tip field emission device was presented besides the tip-to-electrode one. Real-time, in situ observation of the planar field emission was realized in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Measurements showed that the minimum voltage for 10 nA field emission current was only 8.0 V and the maximum emission current density in an individual CNT emitter (1.0 nm in diameter) exceeded 5.7 x 10(8) A cm(-2). These results stand out in the comparison with recent works on individual CNT field emission, indicating that the planar devices based on ultra-thin individual CNTs are more competitive candidates for next-generation electron field emitters.
Song
Xuefeng
X
State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics and Electron Microscopy Laboratory, Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
Gao
Jingyun
J
Fu
Qiang
Q
Xu
Jun
J
Zhao
Qing
Q
Yu
Dapeng
D
D004566:Electrodes; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D036103:Nanotechnology; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*
D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon