Skip to main content
Log in

Large field emission current and density from robust carbon nanotube cathodes for continuous and pulsed electron sources

连续/脉冲电子源用大电流高密度场发射碳纳米管冷阴极

  • Articles
  • Published:
Science China Materials Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Highly adhesive cold cathodes with high field emission performance are fabricated by using a screen-printingmethod. The emission density of carbon nanotube (CNT) cold cathode reaches 207.0 mA cm−2 at an electric field of 4.5 V μm−1 under continuous driving mode, and high peak current emission of 315.8 mA corresponding to 4.5 A cm−2 at the electric field of 10.3 V μm−1 under pulsed driving mode. The emission patterns of the cold cathodes are of excellent uniformity that was revealed by vivid luminescent patterns of phosphor coated transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) anode. The cold cathodes also exhibit highly stable emission under continuous and pulsed driving modes. The high adhesion of CNTs tomolybdenum substrates results in robust cold cathodes and is responsible for the high field emission performance. This robust CNT emitter could meet the operating requirements of continuous and pulsed electron sources, and it provides promising applications in various vacuummicro/nanoelectronic devices.

摘要

本文采用丝网印刷技术制备了具有高粘接性能的碳纳米管冷阴极. 该碳纳米管冷阴极在直流连续及脉冲场下均具有优异的场发射 性能, 同时具有高发射电流密度与发射总电流, 可以满足高功率器件对冷阴极电子源的使用需求. 在直流连续场下, 该冷阴极的电流发射 密度可达到207.0 mA cm−2 (电场强度为4.5 V μm−1);在脉冲场(200 Hz, 10 μs)激发下, 峰值电流密度最高可达4.5 A cm−2(电场强度为10.3 V μm−1), 同时具有高的峰值发射电流(315.8 mA). 为观察阴极发射均匀性, 采用荧光板为阳极进行实时监测, 发现此印刷阴极发射较均一; 稳 定性测试表明该阴极在连续及脉冲场下均具有良好的发射稳定性. 该冷阴极同时具有高电流密度及高发射电流, 可以满足高功率真空电 子器件的使用要求, 在真空微纳电子器件中显示出巨大的应用前景.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Whaley DR, Duggal R, Armstrong CM, et al. 100 W operation of a cold cathode TWT. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2009, 56: 896–905

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Verma P, Gautam S, Pal S, et al. Carbon nanotube-based cold cathode for high powermicrowave vacuum electronic devices: a potential field emitter. Defence Sci J, 2008, 58: 650–654

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Milne WI, Teo KBK, Minoux E, et al. Aligned carbon nanotubes/ fibers for applications in vacuum microwave amplifiers. J Vac Sci Technol B, 2006, 24: 345–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Xu NS, Huq SE. Novel cold cathode materials and applications. Mater Sci Eng-R-Rep, 2005, 48: 47–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Yanagisawa H, Hafner C, Doná P, et al. Laser-induced field emission from a tungsten tip: optical control of emission sites and the emission process. Phys Rev B, 2010, 81: 115429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Sankaran KJ, Afsal M, Lou SC, et al. Electron field emission enhancement of vertically aligned ultrananocrystalline diamond-coated ZnO core-shell heterostructured nanorods. Small, 2014, 10: 179–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Chen S, Shang M, Gao F, et al. Extremely stable current emission of P-doped SiC flexible field emitters. Adv Sci, 2016, 3: 1500256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Chen J, Cui L, Sun D, et al. Enhanced field emission properties from aligned graphenes fabricated on micro-hole patterned stainless steel. Appl Phys Lett, 2014, 105: 213111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Chen J, Yang B, Liu X, et al. Field electron emission from pencildrawn cold cathodes. Appl Phys Lett, 2016, 108: 193112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Sridhar S, Tiwary C, Vinod S, et al. Field emission with ultralow turn on voltage from metal decorated carbon nanotubes. ACS Nano, 2014, 8: 7763–7770

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Lahiri I, Wong J, Zhou Z, et al. Ultra-high current density carbon nanotube field emitter structure on three-dimensional microchanneled copper. Appl Phys Lett, 2012, 101: 063110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Gautier LA, Le Borgne V, El Khakani MA. Field emission properties of graphenated multi-wall carbon nanotubes grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition. Carbon, 2016, 98: 259–266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Chen Z, den Engelsen D, Bachmann PK, et al. High emission current density microwave-plasma-grown carbon nanotube arrays by postdepositional radio-frequency oxygen plasma treatment. Appl Phys Lett, 2005, 87: 243104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Park SA, Song EH, Kang BH, et al. Carbon nanotube field emitters on KOVAR substratemodified by randompattern. J Nanopart Res, 2015, 17: 318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Kim JW, Jeong JW, Kang JT, et al. Great improvement in adhesion and uniformity of carbon nanotube field emitters through reactive nanometer-scale SiC fillers. Carbon, 2015, 82: 245–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Calderón-Colón X, Geng H, Gao B, et al. A carbon nanotube field emission cathode with high current density and long-termstability. Nanotechnology, 2009, 20: 325707

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Lei W, Zhu Z, Liu C, et al. High-current field-emission of carbon nanotubes and its application as a fast-imaging X-ray source. Carbon, 2015, 94: 687–693

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Makishima H, Miyano S, Imura H, et al. Design and performance of traveling-wave tubes using field emitter array cathodes. Appl Surface Sci, 1999, 146: 230–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Jensen KL. Field emitter arrays for plasma and microwave source applications. Phys Plasmas, 1999, 6: 2241–2253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Kar R, Sarkar SG, Basak CB, et al. Effect of substrate heating and microwave attenuation on the catalyst free growth and field emission of carbon nanotubes. Carbon, 2015, 94: 256–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Cha SI, Kim KT, Arshad SN, et al. Field-emission behavior of a carbon-nanotube-implanted Co nanocomposite fabricated from pearl-necklace-structured carbon nanotube/Co powders. Adv Mater, 2006, 18: 553–558

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Deng JH, Cheng L, Wang FJ, et al. High current density and longtime stable field electron transfer from large-area densely arrayed graphene nanosheet–carbon nanotube hybrids. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2014, 6: 21558–21566

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Cui L, Chen J, Yang B, et al. High current emission from patterned aligned carbon nanotubes fabricated by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Nanoscale Res Lett, 2015, 10: 483

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Choi YC, Kang JT, Park S, et al. Preparation of a miniature carbon nanotube paste emitter for very high resolution X-ray imaging. Carbon, 2016, 100: 302–308

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Li C, Zhang Y, Cole MT, et al. Hot electron field emission via individually transistor-ballasted carbon nanotube arrays. ACS Nano, 2012, 6: 3236–3242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Zhang Y, Deng S, Du J, et al. Effects of pulsewidth and area of carbon nanotube films on their pulsed field emission characteristics. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2013, 60: 2677–2681

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Yang X, Li Z, He F, et al. Enhanced field emission from a carbon nanotube array coated with a hexagonal boron nitride thin film. Small, 2015, 11: 3710–3716

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Pernía Leal M, Assali M, Cid JJ, et al. Synthesis of 1D-glyconanomaterials by a hybrid noncovalent–covalent functionalization of single wall carbon nanotubes: a study of their selective interactions with lectins and with live cells. Nanoscale, 2015, 7: 19259–19272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Di Y, Xiao M, Zhang X, et al. Large and stable emission current from synthesized carbon nanotube/fiber network. J Appl Phys, 2014, 115: 064305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Zanin H, May PW, Hamanaka MHMO, et al. Field emission from hybrid diamond-like carbon and carbon nanotube composite structures. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2013, 5: 12238–12243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Li J, Chen J, Luo B, et al. The improvement of the field emission properties from graphene films: Ti transition layer and annealing process. AIP Adv, 2012, 2: 022101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Vincent P, Purcell ST, Journet C, et al. Modelization of resistive heating of carbon nanotubes during field emission. Phys Rev B, 2002, 66: 075406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Purcell ST, Vincent P, Journet C, et al. Hot nanotubes: stable heating of individualmultiwall carbon nanotubes to 2000 K induced by the field-emission current. Phys Rev Lett, 2002, 88: 105502

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51002161) and One-Three-Five Strategic Planning of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xingbin Yan  (阎兴斌).

Additional information

Jiangtao Chen received his PhD degree in condensed matter physics from the School of Physical Science & Technology, Lanzhou University in 2009. He is now an associate professor at Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). His research interest focuses on the preparation and application of carbon nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes, graphene and carbon quantum dots) for field emission and optoelectronic devices.

Xingbin Yan received his PhD degree in physical chemistry from LICP, CAS in 2005. Then he worked at Nanyang Technological University as a research fellow and the University of Lyon as a postdoctoral researcher. He is now the director of the Laboratory of Clean Energy Chemistry and Materials, LICP, CAS. His research group works on energy storage devices including supercapacitors and rechargeable batteries. For details, please see the lab website: www.licp.cas.cn/yxbz.

Electronic supplementary material

40843_2016_9016_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Large field emission current and density from robust carbon nanotube cathodes for continuous and pulsed electron sources

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chen, J., Yang, B., Liu, X. et al. Large field emission current and density from robust carbon nanotube cathodes for continuous and pulsed electron sources. Sci. China Mater. 60, 335–342 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-016-9016-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-016-9016-5

Keywords

Navigation