Control of Field Electron Emission for Carbon Nanotube via Externally Applied DC Electric Field

The carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been considered as the potential electron field emitters. Especially in recent years, the development of CNT synthesis technology has promoted to use nanotubes as sources of electron field emitter. In this paper, the CNTs as a field emission electron source is systematically summarized. The methods, theories, main findings and significance of CNT electron field emitter are briefly introduced. Moreover, the field electron emission is controlled by using an external applied DC electric field. Simulation results show that the proposed control approach is a suitable method for manipulating the field emission current.