Fabrication of field emitter by direct growth of carbon nanotube onto tungsten tip by chemical vapor deposition

In this paper, novel and simple fabrication method of CNT field emitter by means of direct growth of CNT onto tungsten tip by CVD was developed. This method enables a fabrication of a high-quality CNT field emitter with simpler procedures than conventional methods. Aluminum (Al), nickel (Ni) and molybdenum (Mo) films were sequentially deposited onto a W tip with tip radius of ~ 0.1 micrometer. Ni thin film serves as a catalyst for the CNT growth. Al layer is an underlayer that controls granulation of Ni film, which is an important process for the CNT growth.