Stabilization of laser-induced thermionic electron emission from carbon nanotubes through rapid power switching

The electron emission stability of a carbon nanotube-based optically-activated cathode is investigated. The emission mechanism is thermionic, based on localized light-induced heating of the carbon nanotube forest - the Heat Trap effect. We demonstrate stabilized emission behavior by introducing a switching phase in the input optical power. This effectively eliminates or significantly reduces the decay in emission current with time.