Investigation of Carbon Nanotube-Based Field-Emission Triode Devices on Silicon Substrates

In this paper, investigation of field-emission devices on silicon substrates using vertically grown carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is reported. CNTs were grown in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition reactor from the Ni catalyst islands at a temperature of 650 °C. The grown CNTs are electrically isolated using a TiO ₂ film. Chromium- or phosphor-doped silicon is deposited on the TiO₂ film as the gate layer. The effects of the surrounding gate as well as the current-voltage behavior are discussed. By applying a proper negative gate voltage around 7 V, a dramatic drop in the emission current is observed. Moreover, the electrical behavior of such devices has been examined at different anode-cathode distances. Under proper conditions of the anode-cathode spacing, a saturation is observed in the anode current with respect to the anode-cathode voltage. In addition, a preliminary field-emission display has been fabricated.