Characterization of Self-Assembly and Evolution in Carbon Nanotube Thin Film Field Emitter

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are found to be good sources of cold cathode electron for a variety of technological applications. In this paper, we analyze the evolution and self-assembly of randomly oriented CNTs in a thin film during field emission under diode configuration. A model of the evolution of CNT thin film is proposed, where the CNTs are assumed to decay by fragmentation and formation of plasma consisting of carbon atoms and impurities. The random orientation of the CNTs and the electrodynamic interaction among themselves are modeled to explain the self-assembly caused by dynamic reorientation of the CNTs. Finally, the nucleation coupled degradation model and the electrodynamic forcing model are employed to estimate the current-voltage characteristics based on the modified Fowler-Nordheim equation for field emission. The simulated results are in close agreement with the experimental results.