Fabrication of probe-typed carbon nanotube point emitters

Abstract

Probe-typed carbon nanotube (CNT) point emitter was fabricated by attaching single-walled CNT (SWCNT) and double-walled CNT (DWCNT) bundles onto the atomic force microscope tip using dielectrophoresis method. The field emission current from SWCNT point emitter was 4.9 mu A at 750 V, which is corresponding to the emission current density of at least 1.2x10(3) A/cm(2). The Fowler-Nordheim plots for the SWCNT and DWCNT point emitters revealed that the SWCNT bundle consists of more individual SWCNTs than DWCNT bundle and, as a result, the field emission performance of the SWCNT point emitter is better than the DWCNT point emitter. It is suggested that the probe-typed CNT point emitters can be used for microwave amplifiers and high-resolution electron-beam instruments. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.