Field emission from carbon nanotubes and its application to cathode ray tube lighting elements

Carbon-nanotube cathode modified by femtosecond laser ablation

“…Carbon nanotube (CNT) is the ideal material for a cathode emitter of a Field Emission Display (FED) [1]- [3]. However, CNT cathode prepared by the printing method has far from ideal emission characteristics, because the CNTs lie flat in the cathode and have random orientation.…”

Field emission from the film of the finely dispersed arc discharge black core material

“…The needle-like material is hardly conglomerated by MWNTs and other impurities. It is known that a significant amount of MWNT exists in needle-like materials [7][8][9][10][11]. There is no doubt that the CNTs existing inside the needle-like materials cannot emit electrons.…”

“…This may be due to the fact that one can not find a good method to disperse them. The MWNTs produced by arc discharge have been used to manufacture nanotube-based cathode-ray tube (CRT) lighting elements, which reveal stable electron emission, adequate luminance and long lifetime [7][8][9][10][11]. However, these approaches may be partly inadequate for preparation of large-area MWNTs films using the screen-printing method for field-emission displays since nanotube-based cathodes for CRTs have been manufactured by gluing a sliced disk (0.5-1.0 mm thickness) of needle-like materials, which consist of a black core material fabricated by arc discharge.…”

Carbon Nanotube Electron Sources: From Electron Beams to Energy Conversion and Optophononics

“…Fortunately, this has not always been the case. Several works such as [77,114,115] have pointed out the deviation from linear Fowler-Nordheim behavior in field-emission experiments on nanotubes. Such deviations have been explained through cooperative effects among the tips in an emitter consisting of a collection of nanotubes [116], the difference in the energy band structure of nanotubes and conventional emitters [117], field penetration and induced apex dipoles [118], the nonlinear nature of the tunneling potential barrier as well as its angle dependence [119,120], variation of the local field [121], and the slowing down of the rate of reduction of the barrier width/height as the applied field increases [109].…”