• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.65-69
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• 2009

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were coated with undoped zinc oxide (ZnO) or 5 wt% gallium-incorporated ZnO (GZO) using various deposition conditions. The CNTs were directly grown on conical-type tungsten substrates at $700^{\circ}C$ using inductively coupled plasma-chemical vapor deposition. The pulsed laser deposition technique was used to deposit the ZnO and GZO thin films with very low stress. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy were used to monitor the variations in the morphology and microstructure of CNTs prior to and after ZnO or GZO coating. The formation of ZnO and GZO films on CNTs was confirmed using energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. In comparison to the as-grown (uncoated) CNT emitter, the CNT emitter that was coated with a thin (10 nm) GZO film showed remarkably improved field emission characteristics, such as the emission current of $325\;{\mu}A$ at 1 kV and the threshold field of $1.96\;V/{\mu}m$ at $0.1\;{\mu}A$, and it also exhibited the highly stable operation of emission current up to 40 h.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.115-119
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• 2011

A tip-type carbon nanotube(CNT)-based field emitter was studied to consider it as electron source for micro-focused x-ray tube. The CNT was grown directly on a metal (tungsten) substrate by using an inductively coupled plasma-chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) method. Prior to CNT growth, the metal substrate was etched to have various tip angles from $10^{\circ}$ to $180^{\circ}C$ (flat-type). The morphologies and microstructures of all the grown CNTs were analyzed via field-emission SEM. Furthermore, the effects of substrate tip-angles on the emission properties of CNT-based field emitters were characterized to estimate the maximum current density, the turn-on voltage, and the spatial distribution of electron beams. Prolonged long-term stability testing of the CNT emitters was also performed. All the experiment results obtained from this study indicated why a tip-type CNT emitter, compared with a flat-type CNT emitter, would be more desirable for a micro-focused x-ray system, in terms of the emission current level, the focused beam area, and the emission stability.