Properties of a field emission lighting plane employing highly crystalline single-walled carbon nanotubes fabricated by simple processes

Current-Fluctuation Mechanism of Field Emitters Using Metallic Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with High Crystallinity

“…The current paper presents the first successful development of an inelastic-electron-tunneling model with the WKB approximation for metallic SWCNTs based on the evaluation of FE properties. The FE current from field emitters, for example, SWCNTs, fluctuates, and the I-V characteristics of FEs were examined by considering the power spectrum at ω = 0 in Equation (13), which represents the magnitude of the current due to the electrons passing through a potential barrier from the SWCNTs, in accordance with Equation (13), constructed by the inelastic-electron-tunneling model.…”

“…Namely, this means that the high frequency components of FE current increase, and it is guessed that high frequency components of the power spectrum relatively increase by increasing in an applied voltage. On the basis of this agreement, the experimental results were modeled by the inelastic tunneling model based on the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling of electrons emitted from the ends of the SWCNTs using the current-fluctuation power spectrum given by Equation (13). The results that are shown in Figures 5 and 6 indicate that an electron passing into a barrier in the Fowler-Nordheim regime constantly exhibit an electrical-charge fluctuation in the inelastic tunneling model, and the shape of the power spectrum depends on the quantity of electrical charge that is emitted from the field emitters.…”

“…We considered that an FE cathode comprising well-dispersed SWCNTs in a high-vacuum atmosphere is indispensable for decreasing the current fluctuation of field emitters and for improving the homogeneity of planar emission from a planar lighting device [13]. However, we consider that the FE fluctuation cannot be reduced to zero.…”

“…Therefore, we have carried out basic research to develop FE devices using single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs), and, for the first time, succeeded in employing SWCNT field emitters as the cathode of a planar lighting device with good emission stability at a high current density of over 10 mA/cm 2 [13,14]. Since CNTs were first reported by Iijima [15], it has been shown that they exhibit one-dimensional confinement effects and can be used as coherent quantum wires [16][17][18].…”

Effect of increased crystallinity of single-walled carbon nanotubes used as field emitters on their electrical properties

“…We have carried out basic research to develop field emission (FE) devices using highly crystalline SWCNTs 16 and succeeded in employing SWCNT field emitters as the cathode of a planar lighting device for the first time in the world. 17 From these results, we considered that highly crystalline SWCNTs will be indispensable for decreasing the driving voltage for FE, increasing the lifetime, and improving the planar emission homogeneity of the planar lighting device.…”