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 μA at 750 V, which is corresponding to the emission current density of at least 1.2× 103 A cm2. 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. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.