Abstract
Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) film was coated on aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) films via filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique. Field electron emission properties of the CNT films and the ta-C/CNT films were measured in an ultra high vacuum system. The I-V measurements show that, with a thin ta-C film coating, the threshold electric field (Ethr) of CNTs can be significantly decreased from 5.74 V/μm to 2.94 V/μm, while thick ta-C film coating increased the Ethr of CNTs to around 8.20 V/μm. In addition, the field emission current density of CNT films reached 14.9 mA/cm2 at 6 V/μm, while for CNTs film coated with thin ta-C film only 3.1 V/μm of applied electric field is required to reach equal amount of current density. It is suggested that different field emission mechanisms should be responsible for the distinction in field emission features of CNT films with different thickness of ta-C coating.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1462-1466 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Diamond and Related Materials |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2006 |
| Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- General Chemistry
- Mechanical Engineering
- Materials Chemistry
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Keywords
- Carbon nanotube
- Field emission
- Tetrahedral amorphous carbon