FABRICATION AND FIELD EMISSION PROPERTIES OF CARBON NANOTUBE FIELD EMITTERS

摘要

We report the synthesis of vertically well-aligned carbon nanotubes and the effect of catalytic metal layer on the diameters and the field emission characteristics of them. The carbon nanotubes were grown by thermal chemical vapor deposition on Fe metal catalytic layer, deposited by sputtering process on a Si substrate. We found that the thickness of metal layers could be an important parameter in controlling the diameters of carbon nanotubes. With varying the thickness of the metal layers the grain sizes of them also vary so that the diameters of the nanotubes could be controlled. Field emission measurement has been made on the carbon nanotube field emitters at room temperature in a vacuum chamber. The field emission properties of the carbon nanotubes show strong dependence on the nanotube diameters.