• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.173-178
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• 2007

Carbon nanotube cathodes(CNT cathodes) with a trench structure similar to gated structure of triode-type cathode were fabricated by a screen printing method using multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The effects of surface treatments on CNT cathodes were investigated for high efficiency field emission displays(FEDs). A liquid method easily removed the organic residue and protruded the CNTs. Field emission properties were measured by using a diode-type mode. The liquid method produced a turn-on field of $1.4V/{\mu}m$. The emission current density was measured about $3.1mA/cm^{2}$ at the electric field of $3V/{\mu}m$. The liquid method showed a high potential applicable to the surface treatment for triode-type FEDs.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.277-282
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• 2008

The effects of the field emission property in relation to the surface morphology and adhesion force were investigated. The single-wall-nanotube-based cathode was obtained by use of an in-situ arc discharge synthesis method, a screen-printing method and a spray method. The morphologies of the formed emitter layers were very different. The emission stability and uniformity were dramatically improved by employing an in-situ arc discharge synthesis method. In this study, it was confirmed that the current stability and uniformity of the field emission of the cathode depend on the surface morphology and adhesion force of the emitters. The current stability of the field emission device was also studied through an electrical aging process by varying the current and electric field.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1651-1654
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• 2006

Field emission (FE) currents were measured for silver-pasted and glass-pasted single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) after illuminating the tubes with a pulsed 532 nm laser. A very low turn-on field of approximately 0.4 V/m m and a high current density ~1700 $\mu A/cm^2$ at 3.5 V/m m was obtained for the silver-pasted SWNTs after laser irradiation but on the whole, no improvements were found for the glass-pasted SWNTs. Two roles of laser irradiation for the silver-pasted SWNTs were proposed. First, the embedded SWNTs and SWNT bundles inside the silver paste were immerged on the outer surface due to an instantaneous melting or annealing of the silver metals by the laser resulting in an increase of the field emission sites. Second, the laser irradiation was thought to improve the electrical contact between SWNTs and the silver metal by reducing the contact resistance via laser-induced thermal annealing, which was responsible for increasing the FE currents.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.08a
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• pp.775-777
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• 2007

Field emission properties of expanded graphite composite have been studied. Composite has been synthesized via shear mixing expanded graphite in ${\alpha}-terpineol$ and ethyl cellulose. Field emission properties, of screen printed composite has been measured at a static applied electric field. The details of the analysis have been presented.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.227-237
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• 2016

This investigation deals with the process of field electron emission from composite microemitters. Tested emitters consisted of a tungsten or carbon-fiber core, coated with a dielectric material. Two coating materials were used: (1) Clark Electromedical Instruments Epoxylite resin and (2) Epidian 6 Epoxy resin (based on bisphenol A). Various properties of these emitters were measured, including the current-voltage characteristics, which are presented as Fowler-Nordheim plots, and the corresponding electron emission images. A field electron microscope with a tip (cathode) to screen (anode) distance of 10 mm was used to electrically characterize the emitters. Measurements were carried out under ultra-high vacuum conditions with a base pressure of $10^{-6}$ Pascal ($10^{-8}$ mbar).

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.244-252
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• 2016

This paper describes a new design of carbon nanotube tip. $Nanocly^{TM}$ NC 7000 Thin Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes of carbon purity (90%) and average diameter tube 9.5 nm with a high aspect-ratio (>150) were used. These tips were manufactured by employing a drawing technique using a glass puller. The glass microemitters with internal carbon nanotubes show a switch-on effect to a high current level (1 to $20{\mu}A$). A field electron microscope with a tip (cathode)-screen (anode) separation at ~10 mm was used to characterize the electron emitters. The system was evacuated down to a base pressure of ${\sim}10^{-9}$ mbar when baked at up to ${\sim}200^{\circ}C$ overnight. This allowed measurements of typical Field Electron Emission characteristics; namely the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and the emission images on a conductive phosphorus screen (the anode). Fowler-Nordheim plots of the current-voltage characteristics show current switch-on for each of these emitters.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.353-353
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• 2008

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are attractive for field emitter because of their outstanding electrical, mechanical, and chemical properties. Several applications using CNTs as field emitters have been demonstrated such as field emission display (FED), backlight unit (BLU), and X-ray source. In this study, we fabricated a CNT cathode using transparent ultra-thin CNT film. First, CNT aqueous solution was prepared by ultrasonically dispersing purified single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in deionized water with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). To obtain the CNT film, the CNT solution in a milliliter or even several tens of micro-litters was deposited onto a porous alumina membrane through vacuum filtration process. Thereafter, the alumina membrane was solvated by the 3 M NaOH solution and the floating CNT film was easily transferred to an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass substrate of $0.5\times0.5cm^2$ with a film mask. The transmittance of as-prepared ultra-thin CNT films measured by UV-Vis spectrophotometer was 68~97%, depending on the amount of CNTs dispersed in an aqueous solution. Roller activation, which is a essential process to improve the field emission characteristics of CNT films, increased the UV-Vis transmittance up to 93~98%. This study presents SEM morphology of CNT emitters and their field emission properties according to the concentration of CNTs in an aqueous solutions. Since the ultra-thin CNT emitters prepared from the solutions show a high peak current density of field emission comparable to that of the paste-base CNT emitters and do not contain outgassing sources such as organic binders, they are considered to be very promising for small-size-but-high-end applications including X-ray sources and microwave power amplifiers.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 2002

We have proposed and fabricated two lateral type field emission diodes, poly-Si emitter by utilizing the local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) and GaN emitter using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process. The fabricated poly-Si diode exhibited excellent electrical characteristics such as a very low turn-on voltage of 2 V and a high emission current of $300{\;}\bu\textrm{A}/tip$ at the anode-to-cathode voltage of 25 V. These superior field emission characteristics was speculated as a result of strong surface modification inducing a quasi-negative electron affinity and the increase of emitting sites due to local sharp protrusions by an appropriate activation treatment. In respect, two kinds of procedures were proposed for the fabrication of the lateral type GaN emitter: a selective etching method with electron cyclotron resonance-reactive ion etching (ECR-RIE) or a simple selective growth by utilizing $Si_3N_4$ film as a masking layer. The fabricated device using the ECR-RIE exhibited electrical characteristics such as a turn-on voltage of 35 V for $7\bu\textrm{m}$ gap and an emission current of~580 nA/l0tips at anode-to-cathode voltage of 100 V. These new field emission characteristics of GaN tips are believed to be due to a low electron affinity as well as the shorter inter-electrode distance. Compared to lateral type GaN field emission diode using ECR-RIE, re-grown GaN emitters shows sharper shape tips and shorter inter-electrode distance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.154-154
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• 2008

Although the screen printing technology using photosensitive carbon nanotube (CNT) paste has many advantages such as low cost, simple process, uniform emission, and capability of mass production, the CNT paste needs to be improved further in CNT dispersion, printability, adhesion, electrical conductivity, population of CNT emitters, etc. Ball milling has been frequently employed to prepare the CNT paste as ball milling can mix its ingredients very well and easily cut the long, entangled CNTs. This study carried out a parametric approach to fabricating the CNT paste in terms of low-energy ball milling and a paste composition. Field emission properties of the CNT paste was characterized with CNT dispersion and electrical conductivity which were measured by a UV-Vis spectrophotometer and a 4-point probe method, respectively. Main variables in formulating the CNT paste include a length of milling time, and amounts of CNTs and conductive inorganic fillers. In particular, we varied not only the contents of conductive fillers but also used two different sizes of filler particles of ${\mu}m$ and nm ranges. Among many variations of conductive fillers, the best field emission characteristics occurred at the 5 wt% fillers with the mixing ratio of 3:1 for ${\mu}m$-and nm-sizes. The amount and size of fillers has a great effect on the morphology, processing stability, and field emission characteristics of CNT emitter dots. The addition a small amount of nm-size fillers considerably improved the field emission characteristics of the photosensitive CNT paste.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.122-129
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• 2000

Field emission behavior from vitreous carbon powders deposited on Mo coated glass by electro-phoretic method was investigated. Although the vitreous carbon has only $sp^2$ hybridized carbon bond, we could observe an excellent field emission behavior. Reproducible electron emission was observed without initiation process which is known to be needed in most carbon cathode materials. Critical electric field for electron emission was in the range from 3 to 4 MV/m. The effective work function was estimated to be about 0.06 eV, as obtained from the slope of Fowler-Nordheim plot. The stability of the emission behavior characterized by repeated I-V measurements, was much superior to the Si tips. We observed the possibility of full area light emission in vitreous carbon materials. This results showed that the field emission is not intimately related to the $sp^3$ hybridization of carbon, but the electrical properties of cathod/electrode interface or the conductivity of the cathode materials which required for the electron transport to the cathode surface.