Blackbody radiation from resistively heated multiwalled carbon nanotubes during field emission

Abstract

We report the observation of blackbody radiation from aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes undergoing field emission. The light intensity correlates with fluctuations in the emission current. The onset of light emission occurs at an emission current of 1 mA/cm2 and corresponds to a temperature on the order of 1550 K. Beyond this critical current irreversible changes occur in the nanotube film. The correlation between light intensity and emission current provides convincing evidence for Joule heating and stable operation for nanotube temperatures up to at least 2000 K and emission current densities on the order of 10 mA/cm2.

Single-color pyrometry of individual incandescent multiwalled carbon nanotubes

“…[31][32][33] The multiwavelength pyrometry measurements described in Refs. (11)(12)(13)15,17,19,21,(23)(24)(25) assume that the nanotube source is a greybody, i.e. that its emissivity ε is independent of wavelength.…”

“…30 However, multiwavelength optical pyrometry is the most common thermometry technique applied to CNTs at high temperatures. This general, non-contact method allows the detector to be remote from the source and is relatively easy to implement above 1000 K. Thus it has been applied to individual CNTs, 13,23 films, 11,17,19,21,24,25 and bundles.…”

“…In addition to being small, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are stable at high temperatures [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] and thus are of interest for many applications, including field emission tips, 10,14,15 nanoscale heaters, 22 and incandescent lights. 12, 25 The temperatures T that CNTs reach have been inferred from the magnitude of their field emission current, 10 their breakdown temperature, 26 , the melting of nearby gold nanoparticles, 16 T -dependent Raman spectroscopy, 20,27 scanning thermal microscopy, 28 microfabricated Pt thermometers, 29 and their current-voltage response function.…”

A Reliable Field Emission Performance of Double-Walled Carbon Nanotube Field Emitters

“…However, after several electric field sweeps, the low electric field segment does not shift to the left any more and we can obtain a reproducible F-N plot. The behavior such as shifting to the left in the F-N plot can be explained by the desorption of adsorbates [24]. Since the DWCNT field emitters were exposed to the air before the field emission measurements, the surface of the emitters must have been covered with adsorbates.…”

Measuring the physical properties of nanostructures and nanowires by field emission

“…3).We have more recently measured up to 120 Volt for a SiC nanowire. The high temperatures in CNTs are accompanied by light emission visible by eye due to black body radiation whose wavelength dependence was also measured by optical spectroscopy [5,6] (see Fig. 4).…”