Field emission enhancement by electric field activation in screen-printed carbon Nanotube film

Abstract

By applying a critical field treatment instead of the conventional surface treatments such as soft rubber roller, ion beam irradiation, adhesive taping, and laser irradiation, electron emission properties of screen-printed carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were enhanced and investigated based on the emission current-voltage characteristics through scanning electron microscopy. After nanotube emitters were activated at the applied electric-field of 2.5 V/um, the electron emission current density with good uniform emission sites reached the value of 2.13 mA/cm2, which is 400 times higher than that of the untreated sample, and the turn-on voltage decreased markedly from 700 to 460 V. In addition, enhancement of the alignment of CNTs to the vertical direction was observed. ？ 2005 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.