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

Abstract

We investigated the field emission characteristics from the planar field emitters made of double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) synthesized by a catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) method. Transmission electron microscopy, Thermogravimetric and Raman analysis showed that the carbon materials have a low defect level in their atomic carbon structure, pointing to the synthesis of high-purity DWCNTs. For field emission properties of DWCNTs, the turn-on field of DWCNTs was 1.9 V/μm and the current density was about 74 mA/cm 2 at 8.1 V/μm, which is sufficient for the applications of field emission displays and vacuum microelectronic devices. The DWCNT field emitters also exhibited a uniform field emission pattern and good field emission stability in a diode configuration.