Title :
Effect of evaporation on the field emission of a carbon nanotube cathode
Author :
Cui, Yunkang ; Zhang, Xiaobing ; Lei, Wei ; Di, Yunsong ; Wang, Jinchan ; Mei Xiao ; Yang, Xiaxi ; Tianzhi Wang
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Electron. Sci. & Eng., Southeast Univ., Nanjing, China
Abstract :
Evaporation of carbon nanotubes (CNT) cathodes and the degradation of its field emission are reported in this paper. After 100 h at 1323 K the emission current density decreases from 6.50 to 0.20 mA/cm2 at 7.50 V/mum field strength, while the turn-on field increases from 1.92 to 2.45 V/mum at a current density of 0.1 muA/cm2. The C+-ion current in a mass spectrometer has also been measured to compare the CNT evaporation at different cathode temperatures between 1173 K and 1373 K. The results indicate that the CNT evaporation rate increases greatly at temperatures above 1100 K. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show that the emission degradation can be mainly attributed to the decreased value of field enhancement factor beta, which is caused by CNT evaporation.
Keywords :
carbon nanotubes; current density; field emission; scanning electron microscopy; C; carbon nanotube cathode; emission current density; field emission; field enhancement factor; scanning electron microscopy; temperature 1323 K; time 100 h; Anodes; Carbon dioxide; Carbon nanotubes; Cathodes; Current density; Current measurement; Degradation; Diodes; Flat panel displays; Temperature; Carbon nanotube; Evaporation; Field emission;
Conference_Titel :
Vacuum Electronics Conference, 2009. IVEC '09. IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Rome
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3500-5
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3501-2
DOI :
10.1109/IVELEC.2009.5193379