Interaction between carbon nanotubes and substrate and its implication on field emission mechanism

A High-Luminescence Fringelike Field Emission from Screen-Printed Carbon Nanotube and Zinc Oxide Composite Film

“…It is mainly contributed to the formation of high contact area and low contact resistance between CNTs and substrate. Therefore, the barrier on the junction of CNTs to substrate would be eliminated, and electrons can pass through this junction without obstacle [21]. During the whole field emission, electrons only need to overcome CNT-vacuum barrier, a low voltage would result in a considerable electron emission.…”

Highly enhanced and temporally stable field emission from MWCNTs grown on aluminum coated silicon substrate

“…Another approach to improve FE properties is by decoration of CNTs apex by low work function materials 25 and introduction of various interlayers such as, Cr, W, Ti, Al, Au, Pd, Pt and Cu. The interlayers provide strong adhesion between CNTs and the substrates leading to better growth and restriction on formation of insulating silicide layers [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] at elevated temperatures. Generally, at high temperatures, the growth of CNTs is prohibited due to silicide formation and deactivation of nucleation sites.…”

“…34 It was reported that the nonlinearity in Fowler-Nordheim plot is related to the resistances of both interface and surface barriers and is analyzed by calculating electron tunneling probability using double-barrier potential model. 28 Zhang et al 27 reported CNT growth on Al interlayer of thickness 100 nm using rf plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique and emission current density (J) of 1.5 mA/cm 2 at a field of 3.5 V/µm. Shah et al 31 reported CNT film growth on Al interface layer of thickness 300 nm using thermal chemical vapor deposition (TCVD) and found J to be ∼20 mA/cm 2 at 3.5 V/µm.…”

Improved field emission properties of carbon nanotubes by dual layer deposition

“…[14] The CNTs based microscopic devices possess single-electron emitter or low-current-density material, while high current density is required for X-ray tubes and display devices, [15] and achieving a high current density from CNTs is still a problem due to the limitation of synthesis technique. A large number of attempts like plasma treatment, [16] laser treatment, [17] oxidation, [18] coating of low-work-function material [19] and improvement of bonding between the CNTs and substrate [20] have been made, but all experiments had their limitations due to the need to increase the current density. Seelaboniya et al [3] enhanced the current from 14 to 450 mA at 0.4 V/mm by multistage growth of CNTs on porous silicon substrate.…”